Exploring shops on South Congress the other day, in Austin TX, I came across a pretty, hipster-y rack of greeting cards depicting voluptuous flapper girls, greasy black hair perfectly kinked and deep-set eyes all alluring, paired with various quotes and sayings. My favorite may have been the beautiful girl carrying bushels of fruits and vegetables and flowers, with the inimitable Dorothy Parker quote "You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think." However, another gave me pause and amusement, considering things I've been working through: a woman at her desk, thinking, as though after a long night,
"I have no idea what I want,
but I won't be satisfied until I get it."
On the inside it said "Here's hoping you get everything you want this year. Happy Birthday."
No, it's not my birthday, and I do, in fact, have some idea of what I want - a healthy helping of simplicity, for one, after a summer of hunkered-down complication. But I took the liberty of listening to that inanimate card as though it were a kind old friend, wishing all good things for me this year, and that brought a different sort of satisfaction. Having returned to New Haven last night in a spectacular downpour, I was happy to find my Ivy Noodle fortune cookie agreed: "The best thing you can do is get good at being you."
...On y va!
Estelí
Monday, August 23, 2010
Monday, September 7, 2009
Reclaiming the Ice Cream Sandwich
This (Saturday) morning N headed off to Christ Church for a meeting and Battell for an Ilya continuo audition, and I was left to fend for myself breakfast-wise. He insists he has plenty of food, but my findings were slim (cheese? juice?) so instead I had an ice cream sandwich. This wasn't just any ice cream sandwich, though - he'd gotten me a box of them as a gift during Music Man time in early August, and of course they couldn't come along to Montreal with me. So having one today was especially amusing since I've been begrudgingly/happily hearing about it every time he eats one of my ice cream sandwiches, but now I'm here to reclaim them!
The second thing I did this morning was throw some ingredients into Chris's bread maker and start a little baking project. It's so fun to be here with nothing to do but relax! Now N and I are off to the farmer's market on State St., and some lunch too. Love!
----
Ahh. Now it's Sunday, and winding down at that. Yesterday ended up much more relaxed than any day in my recent personal history - we checked out the farmer's market and N bought some creamy potato-leek soup, then we had a great breakfast at the smallest-ever two-person table at The Pantry. N had a shortstack of banana pancakes with forktinesfull of butter, and I had an onion bagel slathered in cream cheese (too much I said! Never too much, N said!) with some Canadian bacon (ha!) on the side. Halfway through the meal we noticed a new poster up, right next to the table, for the Ottowa Jazz Festival...and along with the bacon, I couldn't help but feel like Canada was chiding me a bit for deserting on such short notice. But the home-ness of New Haven has really done something for perspective, and Montreal newness will still be there when I'm back tomorrow night.
The rest of Saturday was spent with little errands, checking out bedframes at Ikea with N, picking up a couple things at Sash's and my favorite little Walgreen's, and treating ourselves to the homemade pretzels I made (some cinn/sugar, some kosher salt, some garlic salt) and a little champagne N got for my visit / end of auditions / for Chris White's first week of teaching classes. Also down Memory Lane included dinner pickup from Ivy Noodle (the best steamed Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, ever!) and fortune cookies in the true, college-reminiscent what-am-I-doing-with-my-life fashion. N had some work to do and I caught up with Ma, after which point we watched a good portion of the A&P church xmastime sing-in (on VHS, provided by Conrad) and finished off champagne; then early to bed early to rise, since Noah had his first Sunday as organ scholar and co-choral director at Christ Church New Haven. !
Sunday N went off to two Xchurch services, while I slept in, did a little reading, and then walked downtown to surprise Mixed Company, my college a cappella group, with a visit. Only one person, Ian Janer, knew that I'd be around, so it felt especially stealthy; what I wasn't anticipating was the actual act of walking around Yale campus as a completely unaffiliated person. Granted some of my perceptions became sentimentalized - what I might've described as my "preferred route" became now in my mind my "favorite way to walk downtown," etc. - but it was certainly an interesting feeling. I stumbled into Saybrook, my old residential college, barely behind someone who'd swiped their ID card in, and was flooded with memories of each of three dorm rooms there with Sash, Liubin, Agnes, Cari...not to mention all the memories and mystery of the tower and the feeling of being in the hammocked courtyard again, right next to the 3x/day dining hall. Right as I passed through SY and into Branford I just so happened to see an old friend, Arden, reading Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale" on the steps, who then of course got up and told me all about how he's dramaturging this show and how he was sick last week and had hallucinatory dreams and ahhh why am I here and for how long!? It was a lot of fun to experience what I so well remember as the Yale overachiever overenthusiast way of life...how I wish some McGill singers would get over themselves and be more this way! Anyway, right as we parted ways, Mixed Co went on lunch break and happened to be walking through Branford, right towards me...and the reaction was completely priceless. Scott Hillier particularly bowled through the group and picked me up and it was so great and fun to be with them all again; since they were on break Scott and Ian and I went to Booktrader for Tempestos and iced vanilla chai, and caught up a little bit before we went back to the audition space, and I filled out an auditionee form with various inside jokes and MixedCo references.
I was introduced to the group by the rush managers just as any other auditionee would be, and then sang my original audition song from (AHH) five years ago, "Angel Eyes," plus various other silly things (impressions of a few group members throughout gump history, the Cranberries, Alanis Morisette, etc.). It was lots of fun, and almost even better was getting to sit for an adorable audition - a real live freshman, only a little scared out of his mind, clutching a bottle of Yale water and singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Luckily though he was very good, and I even got to go sing the "How the Scenery Changes" shoe part with a quartet. If BK is reading this, I still love that song!
At this point it was a little after 1:30, so I didn't want to keep N waiting downtown; said some sad goodbyes and headed to the department where he'd been practicing for a little while after church. He said the YBOP crew were having a meeting on the first floor, and that I should say hi, so of course I stopped in - but the reaction was so horribly different than the other I'd just received, "What are *you* doing here, aren't you supposed to be in Montreal?" The only person who was genuinely happy to see me was Prof. Lalli, so I gave him a quick hug and kiss and left feeling not unlike chopped liver. I'm sure what with the final year of the project, everyone is incredibly stressed with the start of a schoolyear and the auditions going on, not to mention it seemed like all the most important people were there working hard and concentrating; so I didn't let it bother me. Needless to say the stress and exhaustion of last year's jobs meant something very different than four years of a cappella friendships, so all that really mattered was seeing Lalli and his happy smile of greeting.
N and I embarked on a few errands, then decided to do something a little spontaneous and silly: in honor of his recent trip to Germany/Austria, and both of our loves of German / cold beer on hot days, we went to a hilarious restaurant outside of Berlin CT that specialized in German food/drink. Huge liter mugs and silly hats abounded, not to mention dirndled waitresses and ridiculous food portions. Noah went for the mushroom-gravy Schnitzel with fruit cup and salad and spätzle and banana creme, and I had scallops with spätzle and fruit cup and salad and apple pie (to go). So much food! We had a good time, though I'll admit I was letting some McGill stuff gnaw at me; a friend, Clayton, was going to go to the department in Montreal and check the opera cast lists for me, but hadn't gotten a chance yet, so I felt really caught in between (not to mention, there was an Opera McGill meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning, and if I got into the opera I'd need to be there; if not I could stay another day in New Haven and take a Tuesday morning rideshare). So N was good to talk me through those thoughts and fears, and we drove the 45 min home after a long leisurely meal.
Upon returning home, the email said one new - Facebook, from a new countertenor friend at McGill. "Hey girly, cast lists are up, you're Agrippina and Dido cover." And that was it! Rideshare for Monday afternoon, and opera this semester. Handel's Agrippina only has a few female characters, and I've never had a title role before; Dido is a role I've never expected to play since I've always been more a Belinda, but okay! Even though this sends my schedule into a complete messy frenzy, and I've already begun to send emails for meetings with administrators and phone conferences with group directors, I'm glad to be getting a chance to sing with McGill Opera this year. Whew.
Anyway, N had to practice so I brought along some work, and did reading in the ISM while he holed away for a little while; we got to see Arianne briefly (yay!) and I met a couple new Yale organists. We just barely made it out in time to get to Criterion to see Julie and Julia, which I really enjoyed (esp. the onion chopping scene), and we got more popcorn and drink than any six people could consume, let alone two. N had Monday morning class so it was again early to bed, but I was so glad we got to see that movie together, and it was the end to a great day.
-----
Today, Monday, was my last day in New Haven and last chance to relax before returning to an ever-faster-paced Montreal life. So, when N got up early, I did too - answered emails, called Dashon to make a lunch plan, and even got to see Derek Greten-Harrison briefly who dropped off music to me and gave me the lowdown on Emma Kirkby coming to Yale in October (AHH I really want to go!). N got home and we went downtown to have a short lunch with Dashon at Bulldog Burrito (so good to see him!), and we also got to see Panetti (love her) and Casey B (¡¡hooray!!). We snooped in Xchurch a little then said goodbye to Dashon, and headed up to West Rock to just relax and walk around, and say goodbye. New Haven is still stuck in summertime, not to mention full of people and places and things that represent my past; comforting and comfortable as all that may be, it was time to go. There's something less disturbing and more reassuring (yet definitely quite a bit of both) about the fact that life moves inexorably forward, and Yale/New Haven goings-on move at the same pace as they would with or without me. Neither will Montreal have paused! I do hope that my lilies on the dining room table have stayed hardy, and that the weather hasn't gotten too much more autumnal.
N dropped me off at the same meeting point off of 87 to ride back with Abbie and Phil, and it's been largely uneventful - a little reading, a little napping, a lot of leftover popcorn consumption. Soon we'll hit the border and hopefully avoid a long wait, not to mention work through Abbie's lack of passport (! luckily she has a permanent residence card and health card, or some such, and lots more proof of Quebec residency than of American citizenship). I'll start with real lessons, opera, church job, and real homework this week, so there's not too little to do (...why do I ever worry about that??...); but there's a certain relaxing quality about learning where to work and study in a new place, so I'm hoping to use that as a balancing beam plus add a little more socializing. Wish me luck!
Love,
Estelí
The second thing I did this morning was throw some ingredients into Chris's bread maker and start a little baking project. It's so fun to be here with nothing to do but relax! Now N and I are off to the farmer's market on State St., and some lunch too. Love!
----
Ahh. Now it's Sunday, and winding down at that. Yesterday ended up much more relaxed than any day in my recent personal history - we checked out the farmer's market and N bought some creamy potato-leek soup, then we had a great breakfast at the smallest-ever two-person table at The Pantry. N had a shortstack of banana pancakes with forktinesfull of butter, and I had an onion bagel slathered in cream cheese (too much I said! Never too much, N said!) with some Canadian bacon (ha!) on the side. Halfway through the meal we noticed a new poster up, right next to the table, for the Ottowa Jazz Festival...and along with the bacon, I couldn't help but feel like Canada was chiding me a bit for deserting on such short notice. But the home-ness of New Haven has really done something for perspective, and Montreal newness will still be there when I'm back tomorrow night.
The rest of Saturday was spent with little errands, checking out bedframes at Ikea with N, picking up a couple things at Sash's and my favorite little Walgreen's, and treating ourselves to the homemade pretzels I made (some cinn/sugar, some kosher salt, some garlic salt) and a little champagne N got for my visit / end of auditions / for Chris White's first week of teaching classes. Also down Memory Lane included dinner pickup from Ivy Noodle (the best steamed Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, ever!) and fortune cookies in the true, college-reminiscent what-am-I-doing-with-my-life fashion. N had some work to do and I caught up with Ma, after which point we watched a good portion of the A&P church xmastime sing-in (on VHS, provided by Conrad) and finished off champagne; then early to bed early to rise, since Noah had his first Sunday as organ scholar and co-choral director at Christ Church New Haven. !
Sunday N went off to two Xchurch services, while I slept in, did a little reading, and then walked downtown to surprise Mixed Company, my college a cappella group, with a visit. Only one person, Ian Janer, knew that I'd be around, so it felt especially stealthy; what I wasn't anticipating was the actual act of walking around Yale campus as a completely unaffiliated person. Granted some of my perceptions became sentimentalized - what I might've described as my "preferred route" became now in my mind my "favorite way to walk downtown," etc. - but it was certainly an interesting feeling. I stumbled into Saybrook, my old residential college, barely behind someone who'd swiped their ID card in, and was flooded with memories of each of three dorm rooms there with Sash, Liubin, Agnes, Cari...not to mention all the memories and mystery of the tower and the feeling of being in the hammocked courtyard again, right next to the 3x/day dining hall. Right as I passed through SY and into Branford I just so happened to see an old friend, Arden, reading Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale" on the steps, who then of course got up and told me all about how he's dramaturging this show and how he was sick last week and had hallucinatory dreams and ahhh why am I here and for how long!? It was a lot of fun to experience what I so well remember as the Yale overachiever overenthusiast way of life...how I wish some McGill singers would get over themselves and be more this way! Anyway, right as we parted ways, Mixed Co went on lunch break and happened to be walking through Branford, right towards me...and the reaction was completely priceless. Scott Hillier particularly bowled through the group and picked me up and it was so great and fun to be with them all again; since they were on break Scott and Ian and I went to Booktrader for Tempestos and iced vanilla chai, and caught up a little bit before we went back to the audition space, and I filled out an auditionee form with various inside jokes and MixedCo references.
I was introduced to the group by the rush managers just as any other auditionee would be, and then sang my original audition song from (AHH) five years ago, "Angel Eyes," plus various other silly things (impressions of a few group members throughout gump history, the Cranberries, Alanis Morisette, etc.). It was lots of fun, and almost even better was getting to sit for an adorable audition - a real live freshman, only a little scared out of his mind, clutching a bottle of Yale water and singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Luckily though he was very good, and I even got to go sing the "How the Scenery Changes" shoe part with a quartet. If BK is reading this, I still love that song!
At this point it was a little after 1:30, so I didn't want to keep N waiting downtown; said some sad goodbyes and headed to the department where he'd been practicing for a little while after church. He said the YBOP crew were having a meeting on the first floor, and that I should say hi, so of course I stopped in - but the reaction was so horribly different than the other I'd just received, "What are *you* doing here, aren't you supposed to be in Montreal?" The only person who was genuinely happy to see me was Prof. Lalli, so I gave him a quick hug and kiss and left feeling not unlike chopped liver. I'm sure what with the final year of the project, everyone is incredibly stressed with the start of a schoolyear and the auditions going on, not to mention it seemed like all the most important people were there working hard and concentrating; so I didn't let it bother me. Needless to say the stress and exhaustion of last year's jobs meant something very different than four years of a cappella friendships, so all that really mattered was seeing Lalli and his happy smile of greeting.
N and I embarked on a few errands, then decided to do something a little spontaneous and silly: in honor of his recent trip to Germany/Austria, and both of our loves of German / cold beer on hot days, we went to a hilarious restaurant outside of Berlin CT that specialized in German food/drink. Huge liter mugs and silly hats abounded, not to mention dirndled waitresses and ridiculous food portions. Noah went for the mushroom-gravy Schnitzel with fruit cup and salad and spätzle and banana creme, and I had scallops with spätzle and fruit cup and salad and apple pie (to go). So much food! We had a good time, though I'll admit I was letting some McGill stuff gnaw at me; a friend, Clayton, was going to go to the department in Montreal and check the opera cast lists for me, but hadn't gotten a chance yet, so I felt really caught in between (not to mention, there was an Opera McGill meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning, and if I got into the opera I'd need to be there; if not I could stay another day in New Haven and take a Tuesday morning rideshare). So N was good to talk me through those thoughts and fears, and we drove the 45 min home after a long leisurely meal.
Upon returning home, the email said one new - Facebook, from a new countertenor friend at McGill. "Hey girly, cast lists are up, you're Agrippina and Dido cover." And that was it! Rideshare for Monday afternoon, and opera this semester. Handel's Agrippina only has a few female characters, and I've never had a title role before; Dido is a role I've never expected to play since I've always been more a Belinda, but okay! Even though this sends my schedule into a complete messy frenzy, and I've already begun to send emails for meetings with administrators and phone conferences with group directors, I'm glad to be getting a chance to sing with McGill Opera this year. Whew.
Anyway, N had to practice so I brought along some work, and did reading in the ISM while he holed away for a little while; we got to see Arianne briefly (yay!) and I met a couple new Yale organists. We just barely made it out in time to get to Criterion to see Julie and Julia, which I really enjoyed (esp. the onion chopping scene), and we got more popcorn and drink than any six people could consume, let alone two. N had Monday morning class so it was again early to bed, but I was so glad we got to see that movie together, and it was the end to a great day.
-----
Today, Monday, was my last day in New Haven and last chance to relax before returning to an ever-faster-paced Montreal life. So, when N got up early, I did too - answered emails, called Dashon to make a lunch plan, and even got to see Derek Greten-Harrison briefly who dropped off music to me and gave me the lowdown on Emma Kirkby coming to Yale in October (AHH I really want to go!). N got home and we went downtown to have a short lunch with Dashon at Bulldog Burrito (so good to see him!), and we also got to see Panetti (love her) and Casey B (¡¡hooray!!). We snooped in Xchurch a little then said goodbye to Dashon, and headed up to West Rock to just relax and walk around, and say goodbye. New Haven is still stuck in summertime, not to mention full of people and places and things that represent my past; comforting and comfortable as all that may be, it was time to go. There's something less disturbing and more reassuring (yet definitely quite a bit of both) about the fact that life moves inexorably forward, and Yale/New Haven goings-on move at the same pace as they would with or without me. Neither will Montreal have paused! I do hope that my lilies on the dining room table have stayed hardy, and that the weather hasn't gotten too much more autumnal.
N dropped me off at the same meeting point off of 87 to ride back with Abbie and Phil, and it's been largely uneventful - a little reading, a little napping, a lot of leftover popcorn consumption. Soon we'll hit the border and hopefully avoid a long wait, not to mention work through Abbie's lack of passport (! luckily she has a permanent residence card and health card, or some such, and lots more proof of Quebec residency than of American citizenship). I'll start with real lessons, opera, church job, and real homework this week, so there's not too little to do (...why do I ever worry about that??...); but there's a certain relaxing quality about learning where to work and study in a new place, so I'm hoping to use that as a balancing beam plus add a little more socializing. Wish me luck!
Love,
Estelí
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Spontaneity...
Here's a blogpost from a long car ride yesterday, that I was too tired to post when arriving after midnight. :)
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So, after an incredibly long week under the audition spotlights, I decided to do something a little crazy...hop on a rideshare to visit Noah in New Haven for the long Labor Day weekend. I know he was just in Montreal, and I know there are first-week studies to be attending to, but this will literally be my last Sunday sans church, and the prospect of Monday off too was too good to pass up. I found a share on the facebook group "People who travel between NY and Montreal" and got confirmation from Abbie, rushed around, and managed to get to the Lionel-Groulx metro to meet her at 4:15pm today.
We chatted a little bit before her boyfriend Phil arrived, and she said they're heading down to New Jersey for a wedding; she's a social worker who went to McGill for undergrad and has been in Quebec for a while. Phil arrived and said immediately in French something about "passport"...at which point Abbie goes, "Ohmigod. I don't have mine." ......So! She did have a copy of the passport, albeit with an expired date, and here we wait at the border, in a line of people waiting to cross, wondering if we'll have to head the hour back into Montreal to get her passport. Sigh! Curve ball!
In the meanwhile, I listen to them exchange Quebecois and muse about the past week. Quick update: We got through the border!! What a relief. We went to the smaller border check, which was probably an excellent idea. At any rate, despite this entry being disjunct, I'm still full of thoughts from the past week, and have a nice 6-hour chunk during which to write, do my seminar readings, and experience life without constant performance pressure. Ahhh!
Tuesday was my first audition, and would have been my first class - that class being full, however, I just got to spend the day cleaning, relaxing, preparing. Well, it wasn't necessarily the most relaxing of days, since audition pressure was already starting to weigh in, but it was far less a marathon than some of the days that followed. I spent the greater part of the morning very flustered that I couldn't find my headshots folder, and indeed still haven't found it...but, sometimes that's just what happens when you move, no matter how organized you think you are. I met Conrad, Noah's and my organist friend, to rehearse for my early music audition which was the next day (he played harpsichord for me - very well, too!), and then we happened to meet Clayton (another Oberlin organist friend) outside the practice rooms; although I had a 5:15 practice session scheduled with Cheryl, my pianist, I called her to see if she was on-time and, when she wasn't, we postponed to later that night and I got to have a nice dinner with Conrad and Clayton. We ate sandwiches and talked a lot about Canadian vs. US accents, and then they were nice enough to walk me the 10 or 15 min to my audition at St. John the Evangelist, the "red roof church," on St. Urbain.
Conrad knew the music director so it felt good to have a personal connection going into the audition, not to mention I had already been referred by a friend who sings there and goes to McGill undergrad for recorder, Laura. We sang a little bit with piano, and then some more with organ; I sightread some Byrd and maybe Ockeghem, can't quite remember that far back, and then some medieval square notation. Overall, the audition was about an hour of singing...much longer and more intensive than I expected. I don't think he was extending the audition for any other reason than that he had time, and wanted to see what I could do; but I couldn't well say "I have to go and rehearse, and conserve for three more auditions tomorrow!!" *at* an audition, so I played along. At the end of it all though, he offered me the soprano scholar position, and I said that before I'd commit I should ask about the American payment issue. Unfortunately, he didn't know much about that, and said there might be some issues with my work permit only functioning six months from now, but he was willing to work something out if I was. I left the audition and headed back one more time to the music school, now completely exhausted and a little frustrated, but lucky me - after calling Cheryl to say I was on my way, she had noted how tired I was and brought me peppermint tea to rehearsal! Seriously the best thing ever. So we sat around and chatted a little bit with another singer, David the countertenor, before going in to practice all the songs and arias, and I felt a bit better than before. Voice-wise, I knew the next few days would be exhausting, though, so I cut myself off from singing and talking after we'd finished the rehearsal, and went to bed very early.
Wednesday I had my first seminar, and first class at McGill...at 8:35am. This was a challenge less to my mental and more to my physical capacity; I remembered what Liubin always said about needing to get up early for a while before the actual event of it. At any rate, I won a few free hours that day to warm up and relax, since the seminar was a brief introduction and assignment (Research Methods in Music Education, starting off with preschooler case studies, woo!) and got out at about 9:30 rather than 11:35. I also noted how especially lucky I was to be early to the practice rooms for warmup, because they'd already started filling up with auditionees...SO many auditionees. After the warmup I went home for a little while to have lunch and stop singing, then headed back again to school for my 1:35p Italian diction class. I was happy to find that there were many levels in the class, not only age- and experience-wise but in terms of technical variation: a pianist who always used glottals, a singer whose mouth shape appeared tense, but wasn't actually. I think I'll be learning a lot in there about singing, and not just Italian diction, and the prof is fun to boot.
After class I trotted over to my 2:50p jazz ensemble audition. This audition was definitely a longshot schedule-wise, but I'm really glad I did it; Madeleine Theriault, the conductor/teacher, was incredibly sweet and affable and stopped me after only a few bars of my song, letting me know I was invited to join if I had time. What with all ensembles counting for course credit here, though, I had to tell her I'd let her know only later; I still had early music ensemble credits to fill to complete my degree, and the possibility of an opera or two. She also very kindly let me off the hook for sightreading, just saying "I bet you've done a lot" which was much appreciated, as I still had so much more to go that day. I left that audition and headed to a 4pm early music audition, which was for Valerie the voice chair and Betsy the chamber coach/gambist. Conrad played well, I thought I sang well, and they seemed at ease, which is always a huge plus in auditions (nothing worse the auditioners seeming either more stressed than you or completely disinterested and judgmental). Sightreading was some Schütz, went fine, and they said they'd let me know soon.
I then hurried over to my opera audition, at 4:50p, met Cheryl, talked with a few other singers as we waited, etc. It was then that I got a bit more stressed than I had been before; listening to other singers and hearing their wonderful varied rep, seeing everyone's headshots and glamor-outfits, listening to the blah-blah who knows whom bragging, etc., wasn't great for morale. A friend came out of his audition and complained that the director was rather dry and professional with him, which luckily didn't happen with me but wasn't an exciting prospect, so I headed in feeling less than 100%. It was a large studio with recently redone floors, an overpowering smell of varnish, and just one person, the director, at a table many miles away from the piano; he greeted and welcomed us, and we started with the Handel aria from Agrippina, the aria (I like to think) that got me into school here.
Well, I had already been a little off-kilter, but then what we started with was not what I expected - Cheryl didn't play the recit before the aria (there was some miscommunication there, and she thought we were skipping it) and we just up and went. I definitely did not feel great about the coloratura in the first A section, and could only imagine my colleagues shrugging outside as they heard me for the first time through the audition room doors; but whatEVer. I managed to kick down those demons for the B section and especially for the da capo, or ornamented first section, so I felt at least somewhat redeemed. Still, it was a frustrating audition for me, especially when after the Handel he asked for Purcell then Poulenc, rather than the Britten I'd wanted to do. Take it as it comes, he seemed to be telling me, so I did my best on those other two excerpts, and was dismissed.
Outside the room there was plenty of "oh great jobbbb!" cooing, but I was pretty fed up with the whole singerly process. Cheryl and I went to the graduate orientation at Thomson House, the graduate society, which reminded me a lot of Yale; but, I couldn't partake of the free beer or wine due to auditions, as much as I wanted to relax and celebrate. So we went back to a 6pm "voice area" meeting, with all the voice students present, and got a bit more introduction to the programs and some student advice. I took notes dutifully, but was already planning my evening...the main brunt of auditioning being done, I called Conrad and Clayton right afterwards on my walk home to ask if they'd like to come to my neighborhood and get gelato at the fancy place around the corner. They both agreed, so we met at 8:30; well, Clayton and I did, and then Conrad ended up being so late that Clayton and I decided to get dinner while we waited. So we went to Pizzedelic on St. Laurent, my first time going anywhere twice (!), and I had a nice salad and he got a fancy goat cheese chicken pizza. Conrad finally arrived and hung out while we ate, then we all headed back to gelato only to find...that idiot girl working there had said it closed at 11p, but here it was 10:15 and completely shut down! Upset, we wondered aloud "where could we even get ice cream??" to which a homeless man right next to us said, "right down there you can get ice cream." ...And there it was, a huge double-scoop cone standup sign just down Prince Arthur. We thanked him and got some sorbet and ice cream, and went to enjoy it in the park a couple streets down, talking about college things and what our parents do for a living. I had managed to clean up the apt a bit before I'd left to meet them, so I invited them over just to see the place, and was happy when they were very enthusiastic; so, feeling energized from the freedom from auditions, I invited them over to have breakfast popovers the next day (my next audition was, after all, only at 4:15...even if my first meeting was at 11:30). So we hung out a little more and read Calvin und Hobbes auf Deutsch and also Calvin y Hobbes en español, and they headed home. But wait! What time was that? Oh, 1am. Right. I then went about the business of getting to bed right then, only to wake up at 8:15am to cook. Probably the worst idea I had all week, but at least during the beginning of the day, it seemed totally worth it.
So Thursday was likely the longest day of all, from accumulated stress and lack of sleep, and my attempts to do and be everything all at once. We had popovers with various jams and some good genmaicha brown rice tea, and Conrad tried out his new stovetop espresso machine; but then I had to shoo them off so I could get to McGill by 11:30 for the opera meeting. I was very glad I was there, because Mr. Hansen the director provided some really key information as to what the program was about; my only worry was (and is) that I know as an early music master's student I don't have room in my schedule to take the actual class, such that if I end up doing opera I'll have to be volunteering for the many hours I'd devote to it. Not an unreasonable thing to ask of me, but I'll admit to having gotten used to doing singing things for pay or for credit, and especially when I know how slim my time will be anyway with classes and reading and transcriptions, it's a little daunting. At any rate, I decided to skip a scholarship meeting I'd planned to attend, and instead warmed up in the practice room, went to the library to read and take notes on some reserved material, and then went home to do dishes and clean up, have some lunch, and prepare. It was at this time that I found the rideshare offer for Montreal-NY...so I sent her an email and facebook message, but had yet to hear back and was slightly reeling with the idea of going back for the long weekend. I walked back to McGill for my Song Interpretation class audition, but they were incredibly backed up with auditionees, so I used that time to get to the library, pick up the music education binderfull of articles on reserve, and copy them *just* in case the rideshare went through and I'd want to read them in New Haven over the weekend. The Song Interp audition went pretty well, nothing I'd call spectacular, but nothing terrible either, and I was amused the whole time that it was in the same hall as my original audition had been. I went home one last time to refresh and refuel, and then trekked to St. Andrew and St. Paul (A&P) downtown for one more audition.
After a pretty hurried 30min walk over, I was greeted by many other McGill students also auditioning and waiting in the waiting room. It was good to talk with them a little bit before the audition and hear about their past experiences, and I walked into that audition more calm than I'd been for a few others; Jordan de Souza, the conductor, is also a McGill student and also happens to be in my Italian diction class, and the organist Jonathan Oldengarm was all smiles. I especially enjoyed that Jordan spent most of my first piece just listening while reading my CV, which made me feel like it was the voice and not just "hmm, what *are* you wearing" that he cared about; we went on to an excerpt from Bach b minor mass, which went fine, and then a couple sightreading excerpts, Lizst and a Bleib bei uns by unmarked composer. They seemed happy and especially enthusiastic about my previous choral experience, and told me they'd let me know by today, and I left the room feeling fantastic and relieved.
I waited for the next person after me to finish his audition, so we walked back to campus together to get to the music building *one more time* to see the callback sheet for opera. I wasn't feeling hopeful, and was actually rather glum to be checking about what I thought was a bad audition after the exhilaration of a good one, but there it was - Estelí, callback 11:10am, Agrippina excerpt again. So I called Cheryl, we set up one more meeting time for 10:30a this morning, and there it was, the *really* last thing. I called Clayton and demanded he come out to gelato but not for a long night-out experience, so we had a scoop (tried the kiwi - VERY good) and talked about the auditions from the day (he had had continuo audition). I tried to head to bed as early as possible, but was really unable to sleep even though I was exhausted; it was after midnight by the time my brain finally let me rest.
I woke up this morning to a very wonderful, very adorable IM message from my old college suitemate Liubin: "Hi Estelí! Please take care of yourself! I miss you!" I couldn't help but think how many times she'd told me this through college, when I was running myself down way too often, and it was so good to know that, even from her faraway Texas medical school, she knew the exact right thing to say. I rallied and went to warmup at 9:15, met with Cheryl at 10:30, and headed to the main hall, Pollack, for the 11:10 callback. It was a Zen moment as any; I was so tired it was hard to worry too much. Directly before the audition a man came out of the room and said "Are any of you here from Yale?" and then addressed me "Nice to meet you! Alan Murchie just sent me an email about you, I'm Julian Wachner. I'm looking forward to hearing you." So I went in thinking of lovely Alan and how supportive he's always been for me. We played/sang, this time with the recit, which definitely made me feel more grounded, and were thanked; walked out, wished others toi toi toi, and headed to Paleography class. Clayton was there, as was Laura O, and a couple others I knew, so apart from the end of what felt like an era of auditions, I had a few friends to celebrate with - granted the celebration involved neume and square note reading/singing, but it was good. Clayton joined me very nicely for a sandwich at Java U, and I walked back for a superquick packing and cleaning session, went to the bank for money, went to the metro to get where I needed to meet the rideshare. If I can't say I'm proud of my sleep habits this week, I can be proud of my efficiency!!
Soon comes Albany, NY at which point I call Noah for him to head out and drive 1.5 hrs to meet me in Hillburn NY, just off Abbie and Phil's path to New Jersey. I've been looking up at intervals to experience the full moon; listen to the radio with Abbie/Phil; watch little clips of The Office on Phil's computer (!!!); and have a few reality check moments. I'll never have first-time auditions for McGill again, nor will I have to worry about the church thing like I have these past weeks...I didn't mention that also upon my return home from school and lunch, I found an email from A&P saying I have the job there if I want it. I grin even now thinking about my tentative "I've got to go this weekend since I'll neverrrr have a Sunday off again!" because now, with two church offers, it's really definite. So although I won't get to see the Opera McGill cast sheets posted tomorrow, or receive any audition results phonecalls on my Montreal cell phone, or party hardy with Clayton or go to David's voice majors party or do homework actually at home, it feels good to be getting to see Noah for the long weekend, lay low and get done what I need to get done, relax and have more time together than other weekends will allow. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to see people or go out and be sociable, especially with with having moved only less than a month ago - I can only imagine the "whaaat why are you back already??" comments - but the opportunity was too good to pass up.
Hope everyone is well out there! Sending much love.
Estelí
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So, after an incredibly long week under the audition spotlights, I decided to do something a little crazy...hop on a rideshare to visit Noah in New Haven for the long Labor Day weekend. I know he was just in Montreal, and I know there are first-week studies to be attending to, but this will literally be my last Sunday sans church, and the prospect of Monday off too was too good to pass up. I found a share on the facebook group "People who travel between NY and Montreal" and got confirmation from Abbie, rushed around, and managed to get to the Lionel-Groulx metro to meet her at 4:15pm today.
We chatted a little bit before her boyfriend Phil arrived, and she said they're heading down to New Jersey for a wedding; she's a social worker who went to McGill for undergrad and has been in Quebec for a while. Phil arrived and said immediately in French something about "passport"...at which point Abbie goes, "Ohmigod. I don't have mine." ......So! She did have a copy of the passport, albeit with an expired date, and here we wait at the border, in a line of people waiting to cross, wondering if we'll have to head the hour back into Montreal to get her passport. Sigh! Curve ball!
In the meanwhile, I listen to them exchange Quebecois and muse about the past week. Quick update: We got through the border!! What a relief. We went to the smaller border check, which was probably an excellent idea. At any rate, despite this entry being disjunct, I'm still full of thoughts from the past week, and have a nice 6-hour chunk during which to write, do my seminar readings, and experience life without constant performance pressure. Ahhh!
Tuesday was my first audition, and would have been my first class - that class being full, however, I just got to spend the day cleaning, relaxing, preparing. Well, it wasn't necessarily the most relaxing of days, since audition pressure was already starting to weigh in, but it was far less a marathon than some of the days that followed. I spent the greater part of the morning very flustered that I couldn't find my headshots folder, and indeed still haven't found it...but, sometimes that's just what happens when you move, no matter how organized you think you are. I met Conrad, Noah's and my organist friend, to rehearse for my early music audition which was the next day (he played harpsichord for me - very well, too!), and then we happened to meet Clayton (another Oberlin organist friend) outside the practice rooms; although I had a 5:15 practice session scheduled with Cheryl, my pianist, I called her to see if she was on-time and, when she wasn't, we postponed to later that night and I got to have a nice dinner with Conrad and Clayton. We ate sandwiches and talked a lot about Canadian vs. US accents, and then they were nice enough to walk me the 10 or 15 min to my audition at St. John the Evangelist, the "red roof church," on St. Urbain.
Conrad knew the music director so it felt good to have a personal connection going into the audition, not to mention I had already been referred by a friend who sings there and goes to McGill undergrad for recorder, Laura. We sang a little bit with piano, and then some more with organ; I sightread some Byrd and maybe Ockeghem, can't quite remember that far back, and then some medieval square notation. Overall, the audition was about an hour of singing...much longer and more intensive than I expected. I don't think he was extending the audition for any other reason than that he had time, and wanted to see what I could do; but I couldn't well say "I have to go and rehearse, and conserve for three more auditions tomorrow!!" *at* an audition, so I played along. At the end of it all though, he offered me the soprano scholar position, and I said that before I'd commit I should ask about the American payment issue. Unfortunately, he didn't know much about that, and said there might be some issues with my work permit only functioning six months from now, but he was willing to work something out if I was. I left the audition and headed back one more time to the music school, now completely exhausted and a little frustrated, but lucky me - after calling Cheryl to say I was on my way, she had noted how tired I was and brought me peppermint tea to rehearsal! Seriously the best thing ever. So we sat around and chatted a little bit with another singer, David the countertenor, before going in to practice all the songs and arias, and I felt a bit better than before. Voice-wise, I knew the next few days would be exhausting, though, so I cut myself off from singing and talking after we'd finished the rehearsal, and went to bed very early.
Wednesday I had my first seminar, and first class at McGill...at 8:35am. This was a challenge less to my mental and more to my physical capacity; I remembered what Liubin always said about needing to get up early for a while before the actual event of it. At any rate, I won a few free hours that day to warm up and relax, since the seminar was a brief introduction and assignment (Research Methods in Music Education, starting off with preschooler case studies, woo!) and got out at about 9:30 rather than 11:35. I also noted how especially lucky I was to be early to the practice rooms for warmup, because they'd already started filling up with auditionees...SO many auditionees. After the warmup I went home for a little while to have lunch and stop singing, then headed back again to school for my 1:35p Italian diction class. I was happy to find that there were many levels in the class, not only age- and experience-wise but in terms of technical variation: a pianist who always used glottals, a singer whose mouth shape appeared tense, but wasn't actually. I think I'll be learning a lot in there about singing, and not just Italian diction, and the prof is fun to boot.
After class I trotted over to my 2:50p jazz ensemble audition. This audition was definitely a longshot schedule-wise, but I'm really glad I did it; Madeleine Theriault, the conductor/teacher, was incredibly sweet and affable and stopped me after only a few bars of my song, letting me know I was invited to join if I had time. What with all ensembles counting for course credit here, though, I had to tell her I'd let her know only later; I still had early music ensemble credits to fill to complete my degree, and the possibility of an opera or two. She also very kindly let me off the hook for sightreading, just saying "I bet you've done a lot" which was much appreciated, as I still had so much more to go that day. I left that audition and headed to a 4pm early music audition, which was for Valerie the voice chair and Betsy the chamber coach/gambist. Conrad played well, I thought I sang well, and they seemed at ease, which is always a huge plus in auditions (nothing worse the auditioners seeming either more stressed than you or completely disinterested and judgmental). Sightreading was some Schütz, went fine, and they said they'd let me know soon.
I then hurried over to my opera audition, at 4:50p, met Cheryl, talked with a few other singers as we waited, etc. It was then that I got a bit more stressed than I had been before; listening to other singers and hearing their wonderful varied rep, seeing everyone's headshots and glamor-outfits, listening to the blah-blah who knows whom bragging, etc., wasn't great for morale. A friend came out of his audition and complained that the director was rather dry and professional with him, which luckily didn't happen with me but wasn't an exciting prospect, so I headed in feeling less than 100%. It was a large studio with recently redone floors, an overpowering smell of varnish, and just one person, the director, at a table many miles away from the piano; he greeted and welcomed us, and we started with the Handel aria from Agrippina, the aria (I like to think) that got me into school here.
Well, I had already been a little off-kilter, but then what we started with was not what I expected - Cheryl didn't play the recit before the aria (there was some miscommunication there, and she thought we were skipping it) and we just up and went. I definitely did not feel great about the coloratura in the first A section, and could only imagine my colleagues shrugging outside as they heard me for the first time through the audition room doors; but whatEVer. I managed to kick down those demons for the B section and especially for the da capo, or ornamented first section, so I felt at least somewhat redeemed. Still, it was a frustrating audition for me, especially when after the Handel he asked for Purcell then Poulenc, rather than the Britten I'd wanted to do. Take it as it comes, he seemed to be telling me, so I did my best on those other two excerpts, and was dismissed.
Outside the room there was plenty of "oh great jobbbb!" cooing, but I was pretty fed up with the whole singerly process. Cheryl and I went to the graduate orientation at Thomson House, the graduate society, which reminded me a lot of Yale; but, I couldn't partake of the free beer or wine due to auditions, as much as I wanted to relax and celebrate. So we went back to a 6pm "voice area" meeting, with all the voice students present, and got a bit more introduction to the programs and some student advice. I took notes dutifully, but was already planning my evening...the main brunt of auditioning being done, I called Conrad and Clayton right afterwards on my walk home to ask if they'd like to come to my neighborhood and get gelato at the fancy place around the corner. They both agreed, so we met at 8:30; well, Clayton and I did, and then Conrad ended up being so late that Clayton and I decided to get dinner while we waited. So we went to Pizzedelic on St. Laurent, my first time going anywhere twice (!), and I had a nice salad and he got a fancy goat cheese chicken pizza. Conrad finally arrived and hung out while we ate, then we all headed back to gelato only to find...that idiot girl working there had said it closed at 11p, but here it was 10:15 and completely shut down! Upset, we wondered aloud "where could we even get ice cream??" to which a homeless man right next to us said, "right down there you can get ice cream." ...And there it was, a huge double-scoop cone standup sign just down Prince Arthur. We thanked him and got some sorbet and ice cream, and went to enjoy it in the park a couple streets down, talking about college things and what our parents do for a living. I had managed to clean up the apt a bit before I'd left to meet them, so I invited them over just to see the place, and was happy when they were very enthusiastic; so, feeling energized from the freedom from auditions, I invited them over to have breakfast popovers the next day (my next audition was, after all, only at 4:15...even if my first meeting was at 11:30). So we hung out a little more and read Calvin und Hobbes auf Deutsch and also Calvin y Hobbes en español, and they headed home. But wait! What time was that? Oh, 1am. Right. I then went about the business of getting to bed right then, only to wake up at 8:15am to cook. Probably the worst idea I had all week, but at least during the beginning of the day, it seemed totally worth it.
So Thursday was likely the longest day of all, from accumulated stress and lack of sleep, and my attempts to do and be everything all at once. We had popovers with various jams and some good genmaicha brown rice tea, and Conrad tried out his new stovetop espresso machine; but then I had to shoo them off so I could get to McGill by 11:30 for the opera meeting. I was very glad I was there, because Mr. Hansen the director provided some really key information as to what the program was about; my only worry was (and is) that I know as an early music master's student I don't have room in my schedule to take the actual class, such that if I end up doing opera I'll have to be volunteering for the many hours I'd devote to it. Not an unreasonable thing to ask of me, but I'll admit to having gotten used to doing singing things for pay or for credit, and especially when I know how slim my time will be anyway with classes and reading and transcriptions, it's a little daunting. At any rate, I decided to skip a scholarship meeting I'd planned to attend, and instead warmed up in the practice room, went to the library to read and take notes on some reserved material, and then went home to do dishes and clean up, have some lunch, and prepare. It was at this time that I found the rideshare offer for Montreal-NY...so I sent her an email and facebook message, but had yet to hear back and was slightly reeling with the idea of going back for the long weekend. I walked back to McGill for my Song Interpretation class audition, but they were incredibly backed up with auditionees, so I used that time to get to the library, pick up the music education binderfull of articles on reserve, and copy them *just* in case the rideshare went through and I'd want to read them in New Haven over the weekend. The Song Interp audition went pretty well, nothing I'd call spectacular, but nothing terrible either, and I was amused the whole time that it was in the same hall as my original audition had been. I went home one last time to refresh and refuel, and then trekked to St. Andrew and St. Paul (A&P) downtown for one more audition.
After a pretty hurried 30min walk over, I was greeted by many other McGill students also auditioning and waiting in the waiting room. It was good to talk with them a little bit before the audition and hear about their past experiences, and I walked into that audition more calm than I'd been for a few others; Jordan de Souza, the conductor, is also a McGill student and also happens to be in my Italian diction class, and the organist Jonathan Oldengarm was all smiles. I especially enjoyed that Jordan spent most of my first piece just listening while reading my CV, which made me feel like it was the voice and not just "hmm, what *are* you wearing" that he cared about; we went on to an excerpt from Bach b minor mass, which went fine, and then a couple sightreading excerpts, Lizst and a Bleib bei uns by unmarked composer. They seemed happy and especially enthusiastic about my previous choral experience, and told me they'd let me know by today, and I left the room feeling fantastic and relieved.
I waited for the next person after me to finish his audition, so we walked back to campus together to get to the music building *one more time* to see the callback sheet for opera. I wasn't feeling hopeful, and was actually rather glum to be checking about what I thought was a bad audition after the exhilaration of a good one, but there it was - Estelí, callback 11:10am, Agrippina excerpt again. So I called Cheryl, we set up one more meeting time for 10:30a this morning, and there it was, the *really* last thing. I called Clayton and demanded he come out to gelato but not for a long night-out experience, so we had a scoop (tried the kiwi - VERY good) and talked about the auditions from the day (he had had continuo audition). I tried to head to bed as early as possible, but was really unable to sleep even though I was exhausted; it was after midnight by the time my brain finally let me rest.
I woke up this morning to a very wonderful, very adorable IM message from my old college suitemate Liubin: "Hi Estelí! Please take care of yourself! I miss you!" I couldn't help but think how many times she'd told me this through college, when I was running myself down way too often, and it was so good to know that, even from her faraway Texas medical school, she knew the exact right thing to say. I rallied and went to warmup at 9:15, met with Cheryl at 10:30, and headed to the main hall, Pollack, for the 11:10 callback. It was a Zen moment as any; I was so tired it was hard to worry too much. Directly before the audition a man came out of the room and said "Are any of you here from Yale?" and then addressed me "Nice to meet you! Alan Murchie just sent me an email about you, I'm Julian Wachner. I'm looking forward to hearing you." So I went in thinking of lovely Alan and how supportive he's always been for me. We played/sang, this time with the recit, which definitely made me feel more grounded, and were thanked; walked out, wished others toi toi toi, and headed to Paleography class. Clayton was there, as was Laura O, and a couple others I knew, so apart from the end of what felt like an era of auditions, I had a few friends to celebrate with - granted the celebration involved neume and square note reading/singing, but it was good. Clayton joined me very nicely for a sandwich at Java U, and I walked back for a superquick packing and cleaning session, went to the bank for money, went to the metro to get where I needed to meet the rideshare. If I can't say I'm proud of my sleep habits this week, I can be proud of my efficiency!!
Soon comes Albany, NY at which point I call Noah for him to head out and drive 1.5 hrs to meet me in Hillburn NY, just off Abbie and Phil's path to New Jersey. I've been looking up at intervals to experience the full moon; listen to the radio with Abbie/Phil; watch little clips of The Office on Phil's computer (!!!); and have a few reality check moments. I'll never have first-time auditions for McGill again, nor will I have to worry about the church thing like I have these past weeks...I didn't mention that also upon my return home from school and lunch, I found an email from A&P saying I have the job there if I want it. I grin even now thinking about my tentative "I've got to go this weekend since I'll neverrrr have a Sunday off again!" because now, with two church offers, it's really definite. So although I won't get to see the Opera McGill cast sheets posted tomorrow, or receive any audition results phonecalls on my Montreal cell phone, or party hardy with Clayton or go to David's voice majors party or do homework actually at home, it feels good to be getting to see Noah for the long weekend, lay low and get done what I need to get done, relax and have more time together than other weekends will allow. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to see people or go out and be sociable, especially with with having moved only less than a month ago - I can only imagine the "whaaat why are you back already??" comments - but the opportunity was too good to pass up.
Hope everyone is well out there! Sending much love.
Estelí
Monday, August 31, 2009
Processing the process
Dearest Blogosphere,
Lots and lots has happened since I last wrote, only a week ago, and it's complicated to wrap my mind around the organizational and emotional ebbs/flows of the first "real" week as a Master's student. I'll try not to be too long-winded, but there's so much to say; luckily though I finally have time to sit and reflect a little tonight, before tomorrow's first real day of classes (and I thought I'd have a seminar, but it was full when I tried to fill out an override form today...d'oh! So classes for me = Weds).
Last Tuesday was full of logistics and amusements, extra-specially peppered with communications from "home" (which is pretty much anywhere in the States at this point). I practiced a great deal and did more work on my schedule, and in between enjoyed an especially windy yet sunny (read: not humid!!) day walking between home and the music school, only about 15 min away. Was hit on by a hilarious middle-aged French speaker, who actually stopped his car and leaned out the window to say obviously sketchy things in French while his light was green and mine was red; I just smiled awkwardly as he got the honking of a lifetime from the cars behind. Otherwise humorous were the accents of a few Canadian "valley girl" types walking behind me, talking about (uh-buh-oht) all their favorite "uhh-ohtfits" and probably judging my not-very-chic ripped jeans and t-shirt. On the walk home I stopped by St. John the Evangelist, another church at which I'll be auditioning, and was delighted to realize it was the same place that Noah had his lesson with Bill Porter, the McGill organ teacher, when he and I were up here in January for my audition. Back then I sat in the sanctuary and listened to N play the same short phrases over and over, attending to very specific articulation, while I went through my heinously long 8-piece medieval-through-Baroque audition program I would be performing for the judges the next day, thinking through gestures and word-for-word translations. How funny to think I'll be auditioning there...tomorrow!
Anyway, the extra-special parts of Tuesday were, firstly, receiving mail (!!!!): a wonderful postcard from Elisa Dolowich, lovely highschool friend; an equally great postcard from Cameron Arens, college bff; and hilarious payroll deposit slip from the Yale dept of music...well, someone got my change of address form! I made a smoothie with some added chilled hibiscuis tea in celebration, which was a big hit, and then did class research some more. That evening I had another chance to reconnect with home, and called my dear friend Jessica Poter, who now lives in LA having graduated Yale with me in 08. We've gotten into a tradition of my singing the Mexican birthday song "Las mañanitas" to her on voicemail every year, so I thought she might let it go straight to voicemail - but, she picked up, and we got to catch up a little bit on her special day. Needless to say I still called and left the song-message after we talked, so as not to break tradition, but it was great to hear her voice and imagine her goings-on in Hollywood.
Wednesday was a big day: my first lesson with Sanford Sylvan, new teacher and generally awesome and famous dude, and also Noah's arrival that evening (not to mention his half-birthday festivities!). I'll admit I felt the pressure a bit to sing well even on a day that I would have loved to devote only to cleaning, cooking, and prep, but it was a 30 min lesson and it turns out, he is a wonderful teacher. The point of the short lesson was just to get to run through audition repertoire a little bit before my auditions which are all this week, and he was very encouraging, very much "on my side." I walked away elated and really believing I had a shot at all, ahem, 6 auditions in the next couple days, and got to go home to do final stages of cleaning before Noah arrived around 5:30.
How exciting to have him here once the apartment was finally set up! He especially admired my bookcasefull of toiletries (v organized) and the nice flowers on the kitchen table (ginger flowers - huge and magenta). We went to a couple of surprise places for the half bday, both on St. Laurent and both excellent: Coco Rico, a Portuguese chicken-and-potatoes establishment, at which we got so much food I still have too many leftovers; and a fancy restaurant called KoKo (ha, they're the same!) which had excellent desserts (pineapple cobbler!) and stylish cocktails. We fretted briefly about attire being "downtown chic" at KoKo, since N had mistakenly left his fancy clothes at home on a hanger draped over the chair next to the stuff he took, but I dressed up and they didn't bat an eyelash. We got to bed early since I had to get up for 10am orientation, and since Noah planned to practice 4 full hours while I was busy with McGill stuff.
Thursday orientation and practicing went fairly according to plan, though I did have a stroke of incredibly good luck: the girl with whom I was chatting during the reception, Cheryl from Calgary (...who has the same exact accent as Margaret Carey...!), is starting her Master's in the accompanying program, and practically up and volunteered to accompany me for my auditions! *What* a relief, and she was even free right then - so we went to a practice room right next to Noah's, and banged through some rep. We grabbed a quick lunch (really, really quick) and then were off again to the library orientation, at which point I finally met Noah's friend Clayton who is an organist here just starting out, and we chatted a bit and exchanged numbers. I finally headed to the voice orientation meeting, where I got many if definitely not all questions answered by Valerie Kinslow, the voice dept chair, and then finally got some time to just relax and hang out with N. We headed out to grab dinner somewhere on St. Laurent, and were delighted to find an amazing street fair going on, most of the road closed, and nearly all stores decked out with booths carting their wares in front. We meandered a bit, trying to decide between various food options, but then came upon the famous Schwartz's deli, which (magic??) had no line... that was it. Reminiscent of Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Schwartz's serves up *the* best smoked meat sandwiches along with enormous, amazing dill pickles and super-sweet Cott's black cherry soda on the side. A transcendent experience, to be sure, and I gave N dregs of my sandwich when he finished his first and looked so sad at his empty plate.
As it turned out, we had walked far enough up St. Laurent to be closer to N's friend Clayton's; so, having received a "help meee" text from him, we walked over to his place to be greeted with hilarious if quite unfortunate tales of the internet electrician flakiness/failure. We then called Conrad, who was very stressed with recital prep but "had time for a beer," and met up all together in the Latin Quarter at a totally amazing beer garden that Noah had found in my guidebook: a converted Victorian mansion, with a huge huge patio out back full of tables and nice little groups relaxing on the warm summer night. We stayed quite late, which was retrospectively maybe not so smart since N had to move his car at 9am the next day, but it was great to talk with all three of them, who all seemed so much more social and at ease around one another (Obies...plus beer). We exchanged pleasantries with some ridiculous townies on our ways home, and then hugged goodbyes since who knew when N would be seeing either of them again.
The next morning we'd planned to get to the Atwater market early, but the day before had been entirely too full and gogogo for me; so we slept in instead. We walked to the music building where I finally nailed down a recital date (May 21st!) while N practiced some more, and we happened to see Clayton and chatted for a while. Went back home to drop things off, then went over to St. Denis, a popular shopping street, to get a few fun things at an excellent cooking store I'd browsed a few days before; N got a wine decanter as well as an adorable two-person sushi set, and decreed he'd soon learn to make his own sushi, and I got various things, most importantly including a pretty and not-too-heavy wok. We headed straight over to the Atwater market after that, determined to complete a day of shopping even if late-started, and I got some delicious fresh food for the coming weeks: figs, amazing cheese, green beans, baby bok choi (!!!). We'd put off food long enough, so after dropping off the winnings we headed to Pizzedelic on St. Laurent, a gourmet pizza joint at which we ordered some amazing spinach artichoke cheese dip plus extravagant pizzas full of salty meats and crazy mixes - goat cheese walnut tomato, yum. Still more leftovers for me, but I couldn't complain!
Saturday was sadly the day N had to head back to the Have, but we definitely made the most of it; I wanted to be sure we went to the Botanical Gardens, but we were disappointed to find it raining when we woke. Oh well, we said! I let N sleep in and made some pretty good carrot/golden raisin/walnut/pineapple upside-down muffins (seriously, you put pineapple slices and brown sugar/walnuts in the tin before the batter, then invert...very cute) as a send-off gift (I know I know, more food!), and having had a couple each we braved the depressing drizzle and went off to explore the beautiful gardens. I was so happy to discover that not only were we now both students, and allowed the student discount, but I am a Quebec resident...so $10 tix for each of us, woohoo! I especially liked how so many parts of the gardens reminded me of different people and things: aloe plants of all the people I associate with aloe juice, yum; roses with Grandma Phyllis and also with the week in Innsbruck hanging out in the rose gardens with Cameron, and also with the New Zealand botanical gardens in Wellington; the Japanese gardens of course with Dad and family; etc. We had about 15 min left before parking ran out, so N enticed me to see the Insectarium just for that amount of time...ah!...and I actually enjoyed marveling at all of it except the gigantic hairy bigger-than-my-hand spider that N pointed out, only to then rub my back in an intended comforting gesture that felt EXACTLY like a spider of that size on my back. AHH.
We told ourselves we'd just make one more stop then he'd head out, but that stop took a bit of navigating - St. Viateur bagels, not too far from my place but just far enough not to walk. Also according to my guidebook, this is a famous Montreal bagel establishment not to be missed even if one only has a day in the city; so, we bought a dozen bagels, some to freeze, but in our hunger ate 3 of them between us in the traffic on the way home. There are few things better than warm bagels in a warm car on a cold rainy day with a loved one.
We made it back home and had one last food task to attend to: at the Atwater market the day before, I'd splurged on a couple enormous arancini for us, but then we filled up on pizza and didn't have them. So, what better way to send N off than with a baked ball of fried cheese and rice? They took not too long to heat and were delicious with some arrabiata sauce I'd just bought at the grocery store days before. Then a tearful goodbye, but once more - it was time to get going. I read a little bit of Linda Meyer's book and of another childhood book, Ella Enchanted, and then started on the task of really assessing the year and next year. Amid all this, Noah had found out that the choral director at Christ Church, Dennis Schrock, quit, such that N and another friend Arianne were asked to split the choral director position for the church...what?! So needless to say, we both had a lot of organizing and life figurings-out to do, and are still working through those, but it's all seeming interesting enough if incredibly demanding. Travel plans are having to be reworked, day-to-day scheduling for me is still completely in the air because who knows what ensembles I'll be in, let alone productions, and it's admittedly difficult to balance old and new.
But, N's visit was grounding, and I'm glad I had it to reminisce about while the real craziness with school started up. Saturday night I sent the "what is going on?" emails; Sunday morning I got the replies and reworked the schedule again entirely. Sunday I had been planning to practice a lot but then found out the building might be closed; then a friend called and said it was no longer on summer hours, so it was open, so I practiced a lot. Sunday evening I got to read a lot and relax some more, having found out there were no Monday classes this week yet; but this morning I went downtown to turn in my schedule, and was informed that all my course override forms could be completed except one, which was already overfull, so no Tuesday class for me. ?? At any rate, I also practiced a lot today, met up with Conrad who will be playing harpsichord for my early mus audition on Weds, and finally nailed down dates and times for certain auditions. I had scheduled a Thurs 5-ish time with my accompanist for the opera audition, only to have the audition signups be posted today and discover that grad auditions can only be Weds, and undergrads only on Thurs; so, called her, and changed it, and now have three on Weds - jazz, early music, and opera. Ha! Not including classes and endless meetings!
Otherwise eventful this evening was my first studio class, ever. This is something that lots of conservatory people are very used to experiencing, but it was completely new to me; we met the other voice students who are also studying with our teacher, and talked about recent and current experiences, thoughts about summer programs and good opportunities, etc. I was relieved to meet more voice students, especially since many of them seemed intelligent and friendly (whew!), but also felt a little out there - there are only a few new people in the studio, and otherwise it was like a reunion of old friends talking about their summers. Not to say I didn't get anything out of it, but I had to be careful...as the new girl, it would have been foolish to raise my hand and contribute, "Well, while most of you were doing pay-to-sing opera programs this summer, I was getting paid to yodel and Tuvan throat sing." Even if I did want to contribute my experience with that stuff for the sake of talking about singing/money dynamics and gigging contracts and whatnot, it wouldn't be perceived that way even if I did talk around it a lot; so I listened and enjoyed. I really appreciated how Mr. Sylvan acknowledged how, for each and all of us, these attempts at music and artistry are all such a process; something I've told myself often, and in many different contexts. Lately I've been thinking about how important it is not just to acknowledge the process, but to say yes to it when one is willing and able - yes the process is there, and yes I'm willing to work. As I prepare for these next three intense days of auditions and classes, I'll try to keep these things in mind - diving headfirst is the only way to more than accept a process, but engage in it. And, as Mr. S so delightfully put it today, while we're up there auditioning, there's a woman in the world having a *baby.* Seriously, contextualize, people! Relax, it's not that hard!
I'll try to make updates more frequent...and more short. :) I miss you all and love receiving your comments, and am grateful to the internet for bringing your wonderful communications during such a new and transitional time.
Love,
Estelí
Lots and lots has happened since I last wrote, only a week ago, and it's complicated to wrap my mind around the organizational and emotional ebbs/flows of the first "real" week as a Master's student. I'll try not to be too long-winded, but there's so much to say; luckily though I finally have time to sit and reflect a little tonight, before tomorrow's first real day of classes (and I thought I'd have a seminar, but it was full when I tried to fill out an override form today...d'oh! So classes for me = Weds).
Last Tuesday was full of logistics and amusements, extra-specially peppered with communications from "home" (which is pretty much anywhere in the States at this point). I practiced a great deal and did more work on my schedule, and in between enjoyed an especially windy yet sunny (read: not humid!!) day walking between home and the music school, only about 15 min away. Was hit on by a hilarious middle-aged French speaker, who actually stopped his car and leaned out the window to say obviously sketchy things in French while his light was green and mine was red; I just smiled awkwardly as he got the honking of a lifetime from the cars behind. Otherwise humorous were the accents of a few Canadian "valley girl" types walking behind me, talking about (uh-buh-oht) all their favorite "uhh-ohtfits" and probably judging my not-very-chic ripped jeans and t-shirt. On the walk home I stopped by St. John the Evangelist, another church at which I'll be auditioning, and was delighted to realize it was the same place that Noah had his lesson with Bill Porter, the McGill organ teacher, when he and I were up here in January for my audition. Back then I sat in the sanctuary and listened to N play the same short phrases over and over, attending to very specific articulation, while I went through my heinously long 8-piece medieval-through-Baroque audition program I would be performing for the judges the next day, thinking through gestures and word-for-word translations. How funny to think I'll be auditioning there...tomorrow!
Anyway, the extra-special parts of Tuesday were, firstly, receiving mail (!!!!): a wonderful postcard from Elisa Dolowich, lovely highschool friend; an equally great postcard from Cameron Arens, college bff; and hilarious payroll deposit slip from the Yale dept of music...well, someone got my change of address form! I made a smoothie with some added chilled hibiscuis tea in celebration, which was a big hit, and then did class research some more. That evening I had another chance to reconnect with home, and called my dear friend Jessica Poter, who now lives in LA having graduated Yale with me in 08. We've gotten into a tradition of my singing the Mexican birthday song "Las mañanitas" to her on voicemail every year, so I thought she might let it go straight to voicemail - but, she picked up, and we got to catch up a little bit on her special day. Needless to say I still called and left the song-message after we talked, so as not to break tradition, but it was great to hear her voice and imagine her goings-on in Hollywood.
Wednesday was a big day: my first lesson with Sanford Sylvan, new teacher and generally awesome and famous dude, and also Noah's arrival that evening (not to mention his half-birthday festivities!). I'll admit I felt the pressure a bit to sing well even on a day that I would have loved to devote only to cleaning, cooking, and prep, but it was a 30 min lesson and it turns out, he is a wonderful teacher. The point of the short lesson was just to get to run through audition repertoire a little bit before my auditions which are all this week, and he was very encouraging, very much "on my side." I walked away elated and really believing I had a shot at all, ahem, 6 auditions in the next couple days, and got to go home to do final stages of cleaning before Noah arrived around 5:30.
How exciting to have him here once the apartment was finally set up! He especially admired my bookcasefull of toiletries (v organized) and the nice flowers on the kitchen table (ginger flowers - huge and magenta). We went to a couple of surprise places for the half bday, both on St. Laurent and both excellent: Coco Rico, a Portuguese chicken-and-potatoes establishment, at which we got so much food I still have too many leftovers; and a fancy restaurant called KoKo (ha, they're the same!) which had excellent desserts (pineapple cobbler!) and stylish cocktails. We fretted briefly about attire being "downtown chic" at KoKo, since N had mistakenly left his fancy clothes at home on a hanger draped over the chair next to the stuff he took, but I dressed up and they didn't bat an eyelash. We got to bed early since I had to get up for 10am orientation, and since Noah planned to practice 4 full hours while I was busy with McGill stuff.
Thursday orientation and practicing went fairly according to plan, though I did have a stroke of incredibly good luck: the girl with whom I was chatting during the reception, Cheryl from Calgary (...who has the same exact accent as Margaret Carey...!), is starting her Master's in the accompanying program, and practically up and volunteered to accompany me for my auditions! *What* a relief, and she was even free right then - so we went to a practice room right next to Noah's, and banged through some rep. We grabbed a quick lunch (really, really quick) and then were off again to the library orientation, at which point I finally met Noah's friend Clayton who is an organist here just starting out, and we chatted a bit and exchanged numbers. I finally headed to the voice orientation meeting, where I got many if definitely not all questions answered by Valerie Kinslow, the voice dept chair, and then finally got some time to just relax and hang out with N. We headed out to grab dinner somewhere on St. Laurent, and were delighted to find an amazing street fair going on, most of the road closed, and nearly all stores decked out with booths carting their wares in front. We meandered a bit, trying to decide between various food options, but then came upon the famous Schwartz's deli, which (magic??) had no line... that was it. Reminiscent of Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Schwartz's serves up *the* best smoked meat sandwiches along with enormous, amazing dill pickles and super-sweet Cott's black cherry soda on the side. A transcendent experience, to be sure, and I gave N dregs of my sandwich when he finished his first and looked so sad at his empty plate.
As it turned out, we had walked far enough up St. Laurent to be closer to N's friend Clayton's; so, having received a "help meee" text from him, we walked over to his place to be greeted with hilarious if quite unfortunate tales of the internet electrician flakiness/failure. We then called Conrad, who was very stressed with recital prep but "had time for a beer," and met up all together in the Latin Quarter at a totally amazing beer garden that Noah had found in my guidebook: a converted Victorian mansion, with a huge huge patio out back full of tables and nice little groups relaxing on the warm summer night. We stayed quite late, which was retrospectively maybe not so smart since N had to move his car at 9am the next day, but it was great to talk with all three of them, who all seemed so much more social and at ease around one another (Obies...plus beer). We exchanged pleasantries with some ridiculous townies on our ways home, and then hugged goodbyes since who knew when N would be seeing either of them again.
The next morning we'd planned to get to the Atwater market early, but the day before had been entirely too full and gogogo for me; so we slept in instead. We walked to the music building where I finally nailed down a recital date (May 21st!) while N practiced some more, and we happened to see Clayton and chatted for a while. Went back home to drop things off, then went over to St. Denis, a popular shopping street, to get a few fun things at an excellent cooking store I'd browsed a few days before; N got a wine decanter as well as an adorable two-person sushi set, and decreed he'd soon learn to make his own sushi, and I got various things, most importantly including a pretty and not-too-heavy wok. We headed straight over to the Atwater market after that, determined to complete a day of shopping even if late-started, and I got some delicious fresh food for the coming weeks: figs, amazing cheese, green beans, baby bok choi (!!!). We'd put off food long enough, so after dropping off the winnings we headed to Pizzedelic on St. Laurent, a gourmet pizza joint at which we ordered some amazing spinach artichoke cheese dip plus extravagant pizzas full of salty meats and crazy mixes - goat cheese walnut tomato, yum. Still more leftovers for me, but I couldn't complain!
Saturday was sadly the day N had to head back to the Have, but we definitely made the most of it; I wanted to be sure we went to the Botanical Gardens, but we were disappointed to find it raining when we woke. Oh well, we said! I let N sleep in and made some pretty good carrot/golden raisin/walnut/pineapple upside-down muffins (seriously, you put pineapple slices and brown sugar/walnuts in the tin before the batter, then invert...very cute) as a send-off gift (I know I know, more food!), and having had a couple each we braved the depressing drizzle and went off to explore the beautiful gardens. I was so happy to discover that not only were we now both students, and allowed the student discount, but I am a Quebec resident...so $10 tix for each of us, woohoo! I especially liked how so many parts of the gardens reminded me of different people and things: aloe plants of all the people I associate with aloe juice, yum; roses with Grandma Phyllis and also with the week in Innsbruck hanging out in the rose gardens with Cameron, and also with the New Zealand botanical gardens in Wellington; the Japanese gardens of course with Dad and family; etc. We had about 15 min left before parking ran out, so N enticed me to see the Insectarium just for that amount of time...ah!...and I actually enjoyed marveling at all of it except the gigantic hairy bigger-than-my-hand spider that N pointed out, only to then rub my back in an intended comforting gesture that felt EXACTLY like a spider of that size on my back. AHH.
We told ourselves we'd just make one more stop then he'd head out, but that stop took a bit of navigating - St. Viateur bagels, not too far from my place but just far enough not to walk. Also according to my guidebook, this is a famous Montreal bagel establishment not to be missed even if one only has a day in the city; so, we bought a dozen bagels, some to freeze, but in our hunger ate 3 of them between us in the traffic on the way home. There are few things better than warm bagels in a warm car on a cold rainy day with a loved one.
We made it back home and had one last food task to attend to: at the Atwater market the day before, I'd splurged on a couple enormous arancini for us, but then we filled up on pizza and didn't have them. So, what better way to send N off than with a baked ball of fried cheese and rice? They took not too long to heat and were delicious with some arrabiata sauce I'd just bought at the grocery store days before. Then a tearful goodbye, but once more - it was time to get going. I read a little bit of Linda Meyer's book and of another childhood book, Ella Enchanted, and then started on the task of really assessing the year and next year. Amid all this, Noah had found out that the choral director at Christ Church, Dennis Schrock, quit, such that N and another friend Arianne were asked to split the choral director position for the church...what?! So needless to say, we both had a lot of organizing and life figurings-out to do, and are still working through those, but it's all seeming interesting enough if incredibly demanding. Travel plans are having to be reworked, day-to-day scheduling for me is still completely in the air because who knows what ensembles I'll be in, let alone productions, and it's admittedly difficult to balance old and new.
But, N's visit was grounding, and I'm glad I had it to reminisce about while the real craziness with school started up. Saturday night I sent the "what is going on?" emails; Sunday morning I got the replies and reworked the schedule again entirely. Sunday I had been planning to practice a lot but then found out the building might be closed; then a friend called and said it was no longer on summer hours, so it was open, so I practiced a lot. Sunday evening I got to read a lot and relax some more, having found out there were no Monday classes this week yet; but this morning I went downtown to turn in my schedule, and was informed that all my course override forms could be completed except one, which was already overfull, so no Tuesday class for me. ?? At any rate, I also practiced a lot today, met up with Conrad who will be playing harpsichord for my early mus audition on Weds, and finally nailed down dates and times for certain auditions. I had scheduled a Thurs 5-ish time with my accompanist for the opera audition, only to have the audition signups be posted today and discover that grad auditions can only be Weds, and undergrads only on Thurs; so, called her, and changed it, and now have three on Weds - jazz, early music, and opera. Ha! Not including classes and endless meetings!
Otherwise eventful this evening was my first studio class, ever. This is something that lots of conservatory people are very used to experiencing, but it was completely new to me; we met the other voice students who are also studying with our teacher, and talked about recent and current experiences, thoughts about summer programs and good opportunities, etc. I was relieved to meet more voice students, especially since many of them seemed intelligent and friendly (whew!), but also felt a little out there - there are only a few new people in the studio, and otherwise it was like a reunion of old friends talking about their summers. Not to say I didn't get anything out of it, but I had to be careful...as the new girl, it would have been foolish to raise my hand and contribute, "Well, while most of you were doing pay-to-sing opera programs this summer, I was getting paid to yodel and Tuvan throat sing." Even if I did want to contribute my experience with that stuff for the sake of talking about singing/money dynamics and gigging contracts and whatnot, it wouldn't be perceived that way even if I did talk around it a lot; so I listened and enjoyed. I really appreciated how Mr. Sylvan acknowledged how, for each and all of us, these attempts at music and artistry are all such a process; something I've told myself often, and in many different contexts. Lately I've been thinking about how important it is not just to acknowledge the process, but to say yes to it when one is willing and able - yes the process is there, and yes I'm willing to work. As I prepare for these next three intense days of auditions and classes, I'll try to keep these things in mind - diving headfirst is the only way to more than accept a process, but engage in it. And, as Mr. S so delightfully put it today, while we're up there auditioning, there's a woman in the world having a *baby.* Seriously, contextualize, people! Relax, it's not that hard!
I'll try to make updates more frequent...and more short. :) I miss you all and love receiving your comments, and am grateful to the internet for bringing your wonderful communications during such a new and transitional time.
Love,
Estelí
Monday, August 24, 2009
A few days in review
Well, it's been an exciting and exhausting few days since I've visited this site, though I've thought "I'd better write that down!" more than once. I especially should have documented my further critter found, as it was just the day after the mouse; but it's just as hilarious to write about now.
On Wednesday night I had taken a bag of music/papers outside on my back balcony, wondering if it was home to any bugs or lure to any mice, and vowed to deal with it the next day. I spent the morning grocery shopping for my roommate's imminent arrival, and then went out to lunch downtown with my international buddy, Sevan, who is Lebanese and grew up in Dubai, and who was very sweet and showed me various places to shop along St. Catherine (right next to McGill). I was home by early afternoon and headed straight to the back door intending to go out and work through the bag, but went to open my windows in my room to air the apt and left the back door (save the screen) ajar. Moments later I returned to the back porch only to find...a squirrel the size of a well-fed cat sitting on top of the bag, gnawing a hole. I hissed and yelled a bit, trying to "scare him off," but he seemed almost entirely domesticated, hopping off the bag but not moving any further. I had to go out, pick up the bag, and nearly hit him with it before he trotted away, and away was only a couple feet. May I please make the disclaimer that I have never ever been frightened of a squirrel before, even the brave ones at Yale that have run across my legs while sitting outside reading; but I've just been so hilariously jumpy from moths to mice to squirrels all invading my apt, so, anyway. He sat there as I cleaned out the bag, threw many things away, and brushed off some sheet music, but I had to go get a container for the things to keep; of course when I left for just a second he came back to snoop, but I decided to just give a round spray of Windex to his face - and he ran off along the telephone line. The nerve!
That evening was the first (or second, after lunch with Sevan) of many more social excursions; Ginny and Dave from downstairs had invited me to dinner, insisted that I not bring anything, and made a fantastic rice stirfry with excellent goat cheese salad and wine. I was meanwhile waiting to hear from Noah as to when he'd get home, but in retrospect it was good to be otherwise involved and kept from fretting - Ginny and Dave are both very kind and funny, and also didn't mind giving me exact cross streets of fun places to go. I thanked them again enthusiastically, and they came up to see what I'd done with my apt (at which point it was not done, still so much had to be done!! I whined). Having gone back up I saw that Noah texted my US phone, rather than the Canadian one, and was relieved - hooray to have him back in communication - though due to technical difficulties we didn't talk til the next day.
Friday was full of last-minute errands, going to the fantastic flower shop only a few blocks away, and a bit more detailed cleaning so the place would look impeccable when Nardia arrived. I went downtown to have lunch with a friend and fellow McGill student, Laura Osterlund, with whom I'd done the medieval program in Vancouver; she was amazingly helpful and I took notes over our salad/sandwich duos. I emailed another church that had a possible opening, St. John the Evangelist, and the director wrote back immediately, assuring me their soprano section leader just left and that they've definitely been looking. It seems like a great place to be, closer to my apt than St A/St P, and smaller ensemble; it only pays slightly less. So within the next week and a half I'll be auditioning for both places, and we'll see!
Apart from church stuff (Laura is an awesome recorder player, but also sings at SJE) Laura told me a lot about music dept politics, ensembles, etc. Though it was incredibly helpful, it also reminded me of what a completely new scene it is here, and how much universities love to (or at least it seems) string students along and provide as little info as possible til the last second. Online registration has been open for a while, yet all the courses I'm absolutely required to take show up as "restricted" due to some technical errors; all seminars are "full" and show no sign of changing; until our orientation meetings on Aug 27, it's just a weird waiting game. Granted today were audition signups and I got much more information from those sheets than from anything online, but there were curveballs there too! Just more hands-on rolling with the punches experience, right?
Anyway, Laura was then kind enough to let me into the practice rooms, and I'd brought just a little sheet music so I practiced for a couple hours. Even though I know it's in preparation for more auditions, this kind of practicing was very different; repertoire I already know, for people who have already at least let me in to study here. I enjoyed the time working through and spot-checking, and headed home to last minute apartment prep. It was lucky I did head home early, too, as Nardia arrived at 6 rather than estimated 7 - an early train! - and we got to hang out and relax. She spent the evening winding down and watching a movie I let her borrow (Kung Fu Panda, sooo good) and I went through the last of my boxes: very small ones full of toiletries and makeup, something I'm a little embarrassed to have collected over the years. I made good steps and threw plenty away, and cleaned and organized the rest - now stage makeup will be so fast and easy! - and then headed to bed happy to have someone else at home.
Saturday was quite a marathon day, but I didn't anticipate it at all; I had tentative plans to go shopping for housewares with Nardia, and to get to see Becky Wexler (friend from New Haven) who was visiting for the weekend. I decided since there were so few days in which I'd get to cook for two rather than one, that I should make Nardia breakfast, and tried out an orange popover recipe: they made the whole apartment smell like oranges and cinnamon, and came out perfectly with a few streetsmart alterations. And that way, I got to try my mom's housewarming gift - tangerine-lemon marmalade from home! It is seriously award-winning stuff.
So directly after having had popovers, Nardia went grocery shopping and I stayed home to tidy; Becky called and invited me out, so I finished things up and walked out to meet her and a couple of her friends as they shopped at their favorite and very expensive, very designer stores. Maybe when I get a job......but, it was still fun to hang out. We also went to a gelato place on St. Denis, a few streets up from mine, so on the walk home after we parted ways I got to go to a few little shops I'd otherwise never seen. Got a few gifts for friends, and eyed a beautiful wok at a cooking store; again, need that job. Once I was home I just wanted to collapse, but ended up making a bit of dinner and then heading out soon thereafter, as Becky had insisted I meet a few more friends of hers in the area; I'm very glad I did, but it took a lot to get me back out. Instead of walking about an hour I hopped on a bus, extremely efficient, and went out to St. Viateur area, famed for its bagels and coffee. We met at a coffee shop called Club Social and, after having received many two-cheek greeting kisses, I got to chat with her lovely friend Alexis who is a baroque trumpeter in the area, and with whom I've exchanged a few emails...how great to have such a helpful contact! He had also been to the bath/body store they also have in the states, called Lush, right before, and presented all of the women at the table with fancy amazing-smelling soaps...even me! I felt very welcomed and was glad to have come out, and Becky even gave me a ride back home.
And now we're almost updated; yesterday, Sunday, I also stayed busy by going out with Nardia and her friend Leo to shop around downtown, and especially get some cooking supplies for me. I did okay on prices, probably paid too much for the mixing bowls, but otherwise, excellent deal on a new pot and pan and cookie sheet. Also got some double-sided extra sticky stuff for posting my mirror on the wall sideways; we did that later on, and successfully. They stayed in town to shop more and I went again to the practice room, feeling guilty about not having made it on Sat, and went through various rep before heading home, but not before stopping at the grocery store on the way to get asparagus and sundry things; at home made a dinner of the asparagus along with a cheesy omelette, and managed to retire early so as to get up as such this morning for McGill audition signups. I headed in at about 10am, only to find hardly anyone had signed up and (!) the opera audition signups were elsewhere; so I found those, and along with them some very interesting info:
Productions this year are:
Handel's Agrippina (WHAAAT so cool! My fave audition aria is from that!)
Rake's Progress (Stravinsky)
Carmen excerpts (Bizet) and Trouble in Tahiti excerpts (Bernstein)
and
Purcell's Dido and Aeneas
At which point, I'm very excited. Then, find: for auditions, please prepare three opera arias, Italian/English/French, one Baroque, one 20/21st C. Uh oh. Luckily they strongly encourage auditioning with repertoire from the upcoming season, so I'm set for the Italian/English with Handel/Purcell; but, um, a modern French opera aria? Oops. Don't have one. So I emailed my teacher asking if it'd be possible to substitute and art song, and we'll see what he says, but for now that's a little bit in limbo.
After signing up and practicing quite a bit, I came home for lunch then went back again, practiced some more, and the met up with Noah's good friend and my now-good friend Conrad for dinner. He was great to talk to and took me to a great pizza place on Aylmer, right near the music school, and we spent a good couple hours talking about music and musicians and McGill and Montreal. I headed home to the delightful task of taking out all the recycling (Nardia's never home on Monday nights for the Tues morn pickup, so there was a LOT) and then re-stacking it after I saw some kids take the cash-redemption stuff out of the bin (sad, but, glad I could help?). I can sense the neighborhood slowly waking up a bit as students arrive and last-hurrah summer parties are carried out (yes, Livin' on a Prayer is cross-cultural). I'm going to head to bed early with earplugs and have a leisurely morning practicing and class/accompanist-hunting; soon (Weds) Noah will be here and I'm sure all I'll want to do is go out and explore together!
Love,
Estelí
PS Update! Teacher wrote back, it's a go for substituting some Fauré and Britten in. Here we go, opera...
On Wednesday night I had taken a bag of music/papers outside on my back balcony, wondering if it was home to any bugs or lure to any mice, and vowed to deal with it the next day. I spent the morning grocery shopping for my roommate's imminent arrival, and then went out to lunch downtown with my international buddy, Sevan, who is Lebanese and grew up in Dubai, and who was very sweet and showed me various places to shop along St. Catherine (right next to McGill). I was home by early afternoon and headed straight to the back door intending to go out and work through the bag, but went to open my windows in my room to air the apt and left the back door (save the screen) ajar. Moments later I returned to the back porch only to find...a squirrel the size of a well-fed cat sitting on top of the bag, gnawing a hole. I hissed and yelled a bit, trying to "scare him off," but he seemed almost entirely domesticated, hopping off the bag but not moving any further. I had to go out, pick up the bag, and nearly hit him with it before he trotted away, and away was only a couple feet. May I please make the disclaimer that I have never ever been frightened of a squirrel before, even the brave ones at Yale that have run across my legs while sitting outside reading; but I've just been so hilariously jumpy from moths to mice to squirrels all invading my apt, so, anyway. He sat there as I cleaned out the bag, threw many things away, and brushed off some sheet music, but I had to go get a container for the things to keep; of course when I left for just a second he came back to snoop, but I decided to just give a round spray of Windex to his face - and he ran off along the telephone line. The nerve!
That evening was the first (or second, after lunch with Sevan) of many more social excursions; Ginny and Dave from downstairs had invited me to dinner, insisted that I not bring anything, and made a fantastic rice stirfry with excellent goat cheese salad and wine. I was meanwhile waiting to hear from Noah as to when he'd get home, but in retrospect it was good to be otherwise involved and kept from fretting - Ginny and Dave are both very kind and funny, and also didn't mind giving me exact cross streets of fun places to go. I thanked them again enthusiastically, and they came up to see what I'd done with my apt (at which point it was not done, still so much had to be done!! I whined). Having gone back up I saw that Noah texted my US phone, rather than the Canadian one, and was relieved - hooray to have him back in communication - though due to technical difficulties we didn't talk til the next day.
Friday was full of last-minute errands, going to the fantastic flower shop only a few blocks away, and a bit more detailed cleaning so the place would look impeccable when Nardia arrived. I went downtown to have lunch with a friend and fellow McGill student, Laura Osterlund, with whom I'd done the medieval program in Vancouver; she was amazingly helpful and I took notes over our salad/sandwich duos. I emailed another church that had a possible opening, St. John the Evangelist, and the director wrote back immediately, assuring me their soprano section leader just left and that they've definitely been looking. It seems like a great place to be, closer to my apt than St A/St P, and smaller ensemble; it only pays slightly less. So within the next week and a half I'll be auditioning for both places, and we'll see!
Apart from church stuff (Laura is an awesome recorder player, but also sings at SJE) Laura told me a lot about music dept politics, ensembles, etc. Though it was incredibly helpful, it also reminded me of what a completely new scene it is here, and how much universities love to (or at least it seems) string students along and provide as little info as possible til the last second. Online registration has been open for a while, yet all the courses I'm absolutely required to take show up as "restricted" due to some technical errors; all seminars are "full" and show no sign of changing; until our orientation meetings on Aug 27, it's just a weird waiting game. Granted today were audition signups and I got much more information from those sheets than from anything online, but there were curveballs there too! Just more hands-on rolling with the punches experience, right?
Anyway, Laura was then kind enough to let me into the practice rooms, and I'd brought just a little sheet music so I practiced for a couple hours. Even though I know it's in preparation for more auditions, this kind of practicing was very different; repertoire I already know, for people who have already at least let me in to study here. I enjoyed the time working through and spot-checking, and headed home to last minute apartment prep. It was lucky I did head home early, too, as Nardia arrived at 6 rather than estimated 7 - an early train! - and we got to hang out and relax. She spent the evening winding down and watching a movie I let her borrow (Kung Fu Panda, sooo good) and I went through the last of my boxes: very small ones full of toiletries and makeup, something I'm a little embarrassed to have collected over the years. I made good steps and threw plenty away, and cleaned and organized the rest - now stage makeup will be so fast and easy! - and then headed to bed happy to have someone else at home.
Saturday was quite a marathon day, but I didn't anticipate it at all; I had tentative plans to go shopping for housewares with Nardia, and to get to see Becky Wexler (friend from New Haven) who was visiting for the weekend. I decided since there were so few days in which I'd get to cook for two rather than one, that I should make Nardia breakfast, and tried out an orange popover recipe: they made the whole apartment smell like oranges and cinnamon, and came out perfectly with a few streetsmart alterations. And that way, I got to try my mom's housewarming gift - tangerine-lemon marmalade from home! It is seriously award-winning stuff.
So directly after having had popovers, Nardia went grocery shopping and I stayed home to tidy; Becky called and invited me out, so I finished things up and walked out to meet her and a couple of her friends as they shopped at their favorite and very expensive, very designer stores. Maybe when I get a job......but, it was still fun to hang out. We also went to a gelato place on St. Denis, a few streets up from mine, so on the walk home after we parted ways I got to go to a few little shops I'd otherwise never seen. Got a few gifts for friends, and eyed a beautiful wok at a cooking store; again, need that job. Once I was home I just wanted to collapse, but ended up making a bit of dinner and then heading out soon thereafter, as Becky had insisted I meet a few more friends of hers in the area; I'm very glad I did, but it took a lot to get me back out. Instead of walking about an hour I hopped on a bus, extremely efficient, and went out to St. Viateur area, famed for its bagels and coffee. We met at a coffee shop called Club Social and, after having received many two-cheek greeting kisses, I got to chat with her lovely friend Alexis who is a baroque trumpeter in the area, and with whom I've exchanged a few emails...how great to have such a helpful contact! He had also been to the bath/body store they also have in the states, called Lush, right before, and presented all of the women at the table with fancy amazing-smelling soaps...even me! I felt very welcomed and was glad to have come out, and Becky even gave me a ride back home.
And now we're almost updated; yesterday, Sunday, I also stayed busy by going out with Nardia and her friend Leo to shop around downtown, and especially get some cooking supplies for me. I did okay on prices, probably paid too much for the mixing bowls, but otherwise, excellent deal on a new pot and pan and cookie sheet. Also got some double-sided extra sticky stuff for posting my mirror on the wall sideways; we did that later on, and successfully. They stayed in town to shop more and I went again to the practice room, feeling guilty about not having made it on Sat, and went through various rep before heading home, but not before stopping at the grocery store on the way to get asparagus and sundry things; at home made a dinner of the asparagus along with a cheesy omelette, and managed to retire early so as to get up as such this morning for McGill audition signups. I headed in at about 10am, only to find hardly anyone had signed up and (!) the opera audition signups were elsewhere; so I found those, and along with them some very interesting info:
Productions this year are:
Handel's Agrippina (WHAAAT so cool! My fave audition aria is from that!)
Rake's Progress (Stravinsky)
Carmen excerpts (Bizet) and Trouble in Tahiti excerpts (Bernstein)
and
Purcell's Dido and Aeneas
At which point, I'm very excited. Then, find: for auditions, please prepare three opera arias, Italian/English/French, one Baroque, one 20/21st C. Uh oh. Luckily they strongly encourage auditioning with repertoire from the upcoming season, so I'm set for the Italian/English with Handel/Purcell; but, um, a modern French opera aria? Oops. Don't have one. So I emailed my teacher asking if it'd be possible to substitute and art song, and we'll see what he says, but for now that's a little bit in limbo.
After signing up and practicing quite a bit, I came home for lunch then went back again, practiced some more, and the met up with Noah's good friend and my now-good friend Conrad for dinner. He was great to talk to and took me to a great pizza place on Aylmer, right near the music school, and we spent a good couple hours talking about music and musicians and McGill and Montreal. I headed home to the delightful task of taking out all the recycling (Nardia's never home on Monday nights for the Tues morn pickup, so there was a LOT) and then re-stacking it after I saw some kids take the cash-redemption stuff out of the bin (sad, but, glad I could help?). I can sense the neighborhood slowly waking up a bit as students arrive and last-hurrah summer parties are carried out (yes, Livin' on a Prayer is cross-cultural). I'm going to head to bed early with earplugs and have a leisurely morning practicing and class/accompanist-hunting; soon (Weds) Noah will be here and I'm sure all I'll want to do is go out and explore together!
Love,
Estelí
PS Update! Teacher wrote back, it's a go for substituting some Fauré and Britten in. Here we go, opera...
Thursday, August 20, 2009
City livin'
Well now, yesterday was quite different than I expected - never a dull moment! I mentioned that Tuesday was a long trek across town, but didn't specify the goal: well, I had found some pesky moths in my apartment Monday, specifically meal moths who like to eat flour etc. I had dealt with these extensively at Noah's last year, so I recognized them immediately and sprung to action...hence, walking so far. I walked all the way out to Home Depot, only to find they had neither one of the two kinds of meal moth traps listed online...frustrating. Then went to "Canadian Tire," their competitors: nothing.
So, overall the day was a success, but the search for traps was less so. I bought some general catch-creepy-crawlies traps and put them around, just to see; and also tried to order mothtraps online, but they were back-ordered. So I resigned myself to just cleaning all day, which I started early on yesterday, having gotten up early even after going to bed late - motivatedstelí! But, as I was putting together a packet of music to practice today/tomorrow when I'm downtown, I saw some movement under the corner coffeetable...I'm totally imagining things, I tell myself, since I've been looking everywhere for bugs...but no, I looked again, and it was a mouse. I moved closer and he scurried into the fireplace, at which point I fled the apartment, rang the girl downstairs, Ginny, who's lived here a while, and politely freaked out. She didn't seem surprised; there had been a mouse a couple years ago, but a neighbor's cat got it; another few years back, she set a trap and, well, yes.
Ginny was very kind and invited me into her apartment, talked to me about this area of Montreal and how old it is even if the internal stuff has been redone, so hence, summer critters. I can't say it was a relaxing conversation (especially when she had an encyclopedic knowledge of bedbugs...ahh!) but it did provide me with some solid information and good rational back-and-forth, something I'd have lacked just wringing my hands alone upstairs. She also gave me the name of a great church choir I should look into, which was encouraging, and the name of a cooking/home supply store very nearby which would have (sigh) mousetraps.
I had to rush off to my meeting with the bank, at which I was still a little flustered but asked many many questions and successfully opened up the chequing account, and applied for the credit card. Next was the store for mouse traps, but I also bought two well-insulated glass jars for flour, some stainless steel wipes for cleaning, and a beautiful checkerboard-style wood cutting board that was on sale from $20 to $10. I'm glad the things I "impulse buy" when stressed are usually actually useful!
Headed home and guardedly began the cleaning process, breaking down any more boxes I had on the back porch, sweeping the floor then vacuuming, shaking out mats and carpets, finding trinkets in odd places and getting rid of the unnecessary. I'd completely forgotten to eat all day, so I also made pasta with sausage and pesto and ate between tasks, another of the tasks then being dishwashing. Ginny had graciously called her boyfriend Dave when I was there and asked if he might help set up mousetraps, so he came over at 5:45 right as I was about to start mopping - good timing. He was also incredibly helpful and friendly, and promised to come help if he was around when I heard the "snap" - something I'd been most worried about. Baited with peanut butter, we set four traps around the apartment, and he kindly asked me to come down to their place for dinner tonight. I am lucky to have such nice neighbors!!
Within all this mouse business was still the stalking of any possible moths - and I did find one, when standing on a coffeetable cleaning dusty eaves, so I tried to nab it with my papertowel. Failure - he flew straight into my face, at which point I prioritized not-falling over keeping my eye on him, so I was frustrated to lose sight of him. I then found him perched on the wall in my room above my wardrobe - far too far for me to reach even on a chair - so I thought, maybe Dave can help with this later. Failure again! He had flown away when I checked back a little later. Finally, mid-cleaning I was on the phone with my parents talking through they day and bank stuff, when he actually emerged from somewhere and flew in my face. "I see the moth, call back!" as I hung up on parents...he was flying terribly, likely from the ceiling fan wind, and was thus hard to spot, but finally he steadied on a wall and I *got* him. Kill the Beast! I liked to imagine him as "the last one" (there have only been I think four in total, but enough), just as I hoped that of the disgusting silverfish I killed at about 2:45am trying to scurry under my bed before sleep - nosir! I had to deal with the unsettled feeling of having killed something right before bed, but, I told myself, better than the high-stress feeling of knowing he's crawling around in my sheetmusic.
But, after a trying day, I found a few encouraging things in the evening to shush my internal worriedness about mousetrap snaps and annoying moths and icky silverfish: first of all, the church that Ginny had recommended was St. Andrew and St. Paul on Bishop/Sherbrooke, which apparently has a fantastic choir that does things on the radio for xmastime, etc. What do I find in my McGill email inbox last night, but an email from the music directors of that same church - "Based on conversation with your future teacher, Sanford Sylvan, we would like to invite you to audition." Even better? The excerpt to prepare is Bach B minor "Et in terra pax" solo (the B minor Mass was the work I just spent a lot of time with, on the Schola China/Korea tour in May). How unbelievably serendipitous, no?
And lastly, I was looking through the few sheets of music I'd set aside, which included some reference materials on vocal health, neck/back stretches, and music philosophy/rhetoric. Two years ago I had had an amazing, life-changing experience at the Vancouver Early Music festival Baroque Programme, having just returned from an equally life-changing two months studying voice and German in Bavaria. I had a little green notebook of quirky phrases ("auditioning people is like choosing avocados") and personal thoughts, generalizations and summaries for myself about music and life and things I had learned over such a busy and challenging summer. I was much more relieved than miffed to discover that certain things "learned" can often require a lot of reminder, to be lived with day-to-day; so I read the phrase my two-years-past self instructed, and felt better to know how well it applies now, and to realize a need to just say "yes" to the process of it all.
"Check your availability, your capacity for change, your blindspots. Learn to be happy with the excitement of not knowing what tomorrow brings."
Love,
E
So, overall the day was a success, but the search for traps was less so. I bought some general catch-creepy-crawlies traps and put them around, just to see; and also tried to order mothtraps online, but they were back-ordered. So I resigned myself to just cleaning all day, which I started early on yesterday, having gotten up early even after going to bed late - motivatedstelí! But, as I was putting together a packet of music to practice today/tomorrow when I'm downtown, I saw some movement under the corner coffeetable...I'm totally imagining things, I tell myself, since I've been looking everywhere for bugs...but no, I looked again, and it was a mouse. I moved closer and he scurried into the fireplace, at which point I fled the apartment, rang the girl downstairs, Ginny, who's lived here a while, and politely freaked out. She didn't seem surprised; there had been a mouse a couple years ago, but a neighbor's cat got it; another few years back, she set a trap and, well, yes.
Ginny was very kind and invited me into her apartment, talked to me about this area of Montreal and how old it is even if the internal stuff has been redone, so hence, summer critters. I can't say it was a relaxing conversation (especially when she had an encyclopedic knowledge of bedbugs...ahh!) but it did provide me with some solid information and good rational back-and-forth, something I'd have lacked just wringing my hands alone upstairs. She also gave me the name of a great church choir I should look into, which was encouraging, and the name of a cooking/home supply store very nearby which would have (sigh) mousetraps.
I had to rush off to my meeting with the bank, at which I was still a little flustered but asked many many questions and successfully opened up the chequing account, and applied for the credit card. Next was the store for mouse traps, but I also bought two well-insulated glass jars for flour, some stainless steel wipes for cleaning, and a beautiful checkerboard-style wood cutting board that was on sale from $20 to $10. I'm glad the things I "impulse buy" when stressed are usually actually useful!
Headed home and guardedly began the cleaning process, breaking down any more boxes I had on the back porch, sweeping the floor then vacuuming, shaking out mats and carpets, finding trinkets in odd places and getting rid of the unnecessary. I'd completely forgotten to eat all day, so I also made pasta with sausage and pesto and ate between tasks, another of the tasks then being dishwashing. Ginny had graciously called her boyfriend Dave when I was there and asked if he might help set up mousetraps, so he came over at 5:45 right as I was about to start mopping - good timing. He was also incredibly helpful and friendly, and promised to come help if he was around when I heard the "snap" - something I'd been most worried about. Baited with peanut butter, we set four traps around the apartment, and he kindly asked me to come down to their place for dinner tonight. I am lucky to have such nice neighbors!!
Within all this mouse business was still the stalking of any possible moths - and I did find one, when standing on a coffeetable cleaning dusty eaves, so I tried to nab it with my papertowel. Failure - he flew straight into my face, at which point I prioritized not-falling over keeping my eye on him, so I was frustrated to lose sight of him. I then found him perched on the wall in my room above my wardrobe - far too far for me to reach even on a chair - so I thought, maybe Dave can help with this later. Failure again! He had flown away when I checked back a little later. Finally, mid-cleaning I was on the phone with my parents talking through they day and bank stuff, when he actually emerged from somewhere and flew in my face. "I see the moth, call back!" as I hung up on parents...he was flying terribly, likely from the ceiling fan wind, and was thus hard to spot, but finally he steadied on a wall and I *got* him. Kill the Beast! I liked to imagine him as "the last one" (there have only been I think four in total, but enough), just as I hoped that of the disgusting silverfish I killed at about 2:45am trying to scurry under my bed before sleep - nosir! I had to deal with the unsettled feeling of having killed something right before bed, but, I told myself, better than the high-stress feeling of knowing he's crawling around in my sheetmusic.
But, after a trying day, I found a few encouraging things in the evening to shush my internal worriedness about mousetrap snaps and annoying moths and icky silverfish: first of all, the church that Ginny had recommended was St. Andrew and St. Paul on Bishop/Sherbrooke, which apparently has a fantastic choir that does things on the radio for xmastime, etc. What do I find in my McGill email inbox last night, but an email from the music directors of that same church - "Based on conversation with your future teacher, Sanford Sylvan, we would like to invite you to audition." Even better? The excerpt to prepare is Bach B minor "Et in terra pax" solo (the B minor Mass was the work I just spent a lot of time with, on the Schola China/Korea tour in May). How unbelievably serendipitous, no?
And lastly, I was looking through the few sheets of music I'd set aside, which included some reference materials on vocal health, neck/back stretches, and music philosophy/rhetoric. Two years ago I had had an amazing, life-changing experience at the Vancouver Early Music festival Baroque Programme, having just returned from an equally life-changing two months studying voice and German in Bavaria. I had a little green notebook of quirky phrases ("auditioning people is like choosing avocados") and personal thoughts, generalizations and summaries for myself about music and life and things I had learned over such a busy and challenging summer. I was much more relieved than miffed to discover that certain things "learned" can often require a lot of reminder, to be lived with day-to-day; so I read the phrase my two-years-past self instructed, and felt better to know how well it applies now, and to realize a need to just say "yes" to the process of it all.
"Check your availability, your capacity for change, your blindspots. Learn to be happy with the excitement of not knowing what tomorrow brings."
Love,
E
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
+s and -s
I'd like to write much more about all of these things, but I'd also like to get on a semi-decent sleep schedule. Lots of cleaning and such to do tomorrow, in preparation for my roommate's arrival Friday (but trash day is Thurs morning, so I know I've got to get ahead).
In easy + or - form:
Booyah: walked almost 8 miles today! And was able to convert km to mi!!
Oops: oh no, so that's where my leg muscles are...
Oh frabjous day!: discovered fantastic food places, a cooking shop (bought awesome spice rack!), antique shops, delicious-smelling bakeries, and (best part ever) a place to buy aloe juice!
Oh, well: didn't eat out due to lack of time or company; couldn't carry big pots/pans home from far away, so didn't buy too much; missed Noah when looking at sweet old antique organs; was self-conscious about my lack of French in bakeries; and wanted to buy all the veggies at the aloe juice market (henceforth AJ Marché) but again, couldn't carry.
My apartment: is going to get the royal treatment in cleaning tomorrow, now that all the stuff has been sorted dealt with
However: it clocked in at 35degC when I came home last night. How dare! Please rain tomorrow?
Yes, finally: got a cell phone! 514-649-2528. Awesome because 5 times 2 digits thereafter is 10, which is also 2+8; 14 is 1/2 of 28; 6+4 is 10, and 9-6 is 3, which x4 is 12; 2x5 is 10, again; and 28 is the point altogether! (Lucky number. If you're wondering about the 12, that's for December.)
...Oh: really really expensive plan so I can call and text the US anytime I please (it's just money, right?)
Easy, cheap, and delicious: slice of pizza after long day
But, pointing at food, rather than understanding French, results in: mushrooms found under the cheese, finely chopped and hard to scrape; ensuing tummyache
I love: little French-speaking kids
But I don't love them: when they're *everywhere* and *screaming* at the mall
(Backwards one):
I was concerned when: it started raining on the walk to the mall
I was delightfully surprised when: I didn't mind, and liked it (see entry re: intense heat)
Glorious: talking to Noah for the monthiversary :)
But it was a struggle: to call via new phone at appointed meeting time after long, long phone kiosk session...I made it, but it was within minutes, and had to run on 7-mi-worth-of-tired legs. Still, verdict: totally worth it
I found out: McGill performance people don't take placement exams, what a relief!
I am otherwise punished: in that this provides less review for an eventual "real musician" life in which "I really need to know all this stuff"
Whew: getting to have lots of relaxing time at the internet café for business affairs, registering phone, classes, email catchup, googling "where do I do this / get this in Canada"
Grrrr: imbecilic mcgill registration site, and class caps, and waitlists
This café is awesome because: they have played the Aretha Franklin Eleanor Rigby (hilarious!), The Doors Touch Me, Brandy (You're a Fine Girl), Proud Mary, and Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog
But I cannot abide by: a house/trance version of Satie Gymnopedies. Like, really?
I can't wait: to sing again in a practice room and in a theater; to have a voice lesson and coaching; to take real diction courses; to get more groceries and cook exciting things; to meet people around here I want to cook for; to eat out and feel informed about what's good and what's not in Montreal; to explore more alone, and with visitors; to wake up tomorrow and clean
I'd rather not: be as sore in the morning as I know I'll be; ask any more questions of the poor McGill grad office; deal with potential bugs during the cleaning process; go to bed so early as midnight. But I really should...start trying... :)
Docket tomorrow:
+Clean, clearly
+Get Canadian bank account
+Get Canadian credit card (replete with adorable "expiry date")
+Find and purchase good mixing bowls so I can bake bread (this includes: figure out idiosyncracies of my Celcius oven)
Love!
Estelí
In easy + or - form:
Booyah: walked almost 8 miles today! And was able to convert km to mi!!
Oops: oh no, so that's where my leg muscles are...
Oh frabjous day!: discovered fantastic food places, a cooking shop (bought awesome spice rack!), antique shops, delicious-smelling bakeries, and (best part ever) a place to buy aloe juice!
Oh, well: didn't eat out due to lack of time or company; couldn't carry big pots/pans home from far away, so didn't buy too much; missed Noah when looking at sweet old antique organs; was self-conscious about my lack of French in bakeries; and wanted to buy all the veggies at the aloe juice market (henceforth AJ Marché) but again, couldn't carry.
My apartment: is going to get the royal treatment in cleaning tomorrow, now that all the stuff has been sorted dealt with
However: it clocked in at 35degC when I came home last night. How dare! Please rain tomorrow?
Yes, finally: got a cell phone! 514-649-2528. Awesome because 5 times 2 digits thereafter is 10, which is also 2+8; 14 is 1/2 of 28; 6+4 is 10, and 9-6 is 3, which x4 is 12; 2x5 is 10, again; and 28 is the point altogether! (Lucky number. If you're wondering about the 12, that's for December.)
...Oh: really really expensive plan so I can call and text the US anytime I please (it's just money, right?)
Easy, cheap, and delicious: slice of pizza after long day
But, pointing at food, rather than understanding French, results in: mushrooms found under the cheese, finely chopped and hard to scrape; ensuing tummyache
I love: little French-speaking kids
But I don't love them: when they're *everywhere* and *screaming* at the mall
(Backwards one):
I was concerned when: it started raining on the walk to the mall
I was delightfully surprised when: I didn't mind, and liked it (see entry re: intense heat)
Glorious: talking to Noah for the monthiversary :)
But it was a struggle: to call via new phone at appointed meeting time after long, long phone kiosk session...I made it, but it was within minutes, and had to run on 7-mi-worth-of-tired legs. Still, verdict: totally worth it
I found out: McGill performance people don't take placement exams, what a relief!
I am otherwise punished: in that this provides less review for an eventual "real musician" life in which "I really need to know all this stuff"
Whew: getting to have lots of relaxing time at the internet café for business affairs, registering phone, classes, email catchup, googling "where do I do this / get this in Canada"
Grrrr: imbecilic mcgill registration site, and class caps, and waitlists
This café is awesome because: they have played the Aretha Franklin Eleanor Rigby (hilarious!), The Doors Touch Me, Brandy (You're a Fine Girl), Proud Mary, and Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog
But I cannot abide by: a house/trance version of Satie Gymnopedies. Like, really?
I can't wait: to sing again in a practice room and in a theater; to have a voice lesson and coaching; to take real diction courses; to get more groceries and cook exciting things; to meet people around here I want to cook for; to eat out and feel informed about what's good and what's not in Montreal; to explore more alone, and with visitors; to wake up tomorrow and clean
I'd rather not: be as sore in the morning as I know I'll be; ask any more questions of the poor McGill grad office; deal with potential bugs during the cleaning process; go to bed so early as midnight. But I really should...start trying... :)
Docket tomorrow:
+Clean, clearly
+Get Canadian bank account
+Get Canadian credit card (replete with adorable "expiry date")
+Find and purchase good mixing bowls so I can bake bread (this includes: figure out idiosyncracies of my Celcius oven)
Love!
Estelí
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